What Madden needs to do

[CharioTitan]

I think Madden 2006 is definitely headed in the right direction. I still think there is a lot of room for improvement, but I like the small things that they brought into Madden 2006. I actually like the Vision & Precision. A lot of people don't like it (I guess they're not good at it), but I think it brings a much needed sense of realism to the game. It is kind of difficult to get the hang of, but I'm really good at it and I don't even play Madden more than maybe 2 hours a week. I believe most Madden players can get the hang of the Vision and Precision with just a little practice. After completing an entire season using it, you should have mastered it. But there are also a few minor changes that most people don't seem to notice.(1) First, there are a lot more audibles on offense. There are four audibles for each formation plus the five basic audibles which gives you at least 40 audibles. (2) Shifting offensive line blocking is a great way to counter the players who move their defensive line wide on every play. (3) Offensive line run blocking is much better than it has ever been. The linemen pull and block on sweep plays and screens and they create holes when running up the middle. (4) The addition of Curl flat zones and Hook zones to defensive playmaker. Now you can literally create a whole new zone defense when you step onto the field (if you can do it before the play starts). (5) The truck stick is pretty nice, too.

Now that I've covered the good things, let's talk about the bad things.
(1) Tackling is still too good. A major factor in any football game is how well the defense tackles. There are an incredible amount of one-on-one tackles in Madden. Running backs and big wide receivers break a lot of tackles, but they don't break that many on Madden. Terrell Owens breaks a ton of tackles just by slipping thru sloppy arm tackles or guys who are out of position. On Madden, you have to be a running back or tight end to break tackles. Most missed tackles aren't guys getting flat out run over like you see on Madden, most missed tackles are arm tackles that just aren't enough to bring a guy down. Obviously, if there are more broken tackles, Madden will need to incorporate gang tackles. This would add a ton of realism to the gameplay.

(2) You should be able to move any player anywhere on the field. I know there are a lot of people who abused this when it was possible( like lining up WR's at DE or putting Michael Vick at KR or PR), but I don't think EA should let those people destroy the realism of the game. I was playing a franchise and all 3 of my QBs were injured in a game and the game made me put my punter in at QB. A couple of my defensive backs got hurt and they put my Running Back at cornerback. In these situations, I should have been able to assign a player I wanted to play, but I couldn't. Realistically, coaches do anything their personnel allows. Last week I saw CB Terrance Newman lined up in a 3point stance. I've seen Kewshawn Johnson playing DB in a Prevent defense. I've seen WRs in the backfield and LBs at safety. These are things that the opposing team has to account for and deal with accordingly. Personnel matchups are a part of football and the ability to move players around is key to personnel matchups. I know on the older Madden when a WR or CB was lined up at DE, the O-line could not pick it up. The responsibility falls on EA sports to make sure the O-line is capable of blocking fast guys. Just because a guy is fast doesn't mean he is going to beat the linemen. Dwight Freeny, Jevon Kearse, Jason Taylor, etc. are faster than any offensive tackle but they don't beat them on every single passing play. EA just got lazy and instead of adjusting the game to that cheating tactic players used, they just took away the ability to do it.

(3) If we are to be able to move players around, the game will need more attributes. Run stopping, pass coverage and route running are some of the attributes that the game needs to add. This way, putting Michael Vick at CB would be a horrible idea because his pass coverage AND awareness would be incredibly low at this position.

(4) WRs dont run good enough routes and CBs cover too well. The game needs to differentiate a 74 rated WR with 95 speed from a 97 rated WR with 95 speed. Right now, all the receivers are pretty much the same. The lower rated ones just drop more passes. But in reality, what makes a receiver good isn't just his hands, it is the abiltity to run routes and get separation from the defender. The awareness attribute doesn't seem to cover route running because all receivers run the same routes. Another thing about receivers is that with the head tracking feature, they'll look at the ball, but won't turn to adjust to where the ball is thrown most of the time. Like if you're throwing deep to a receiver and the ball is underthrown, he'll just watch the ball and keep running and even let the defender intercept it. WRs also need a lot of different animations to show them adusting to make catches. Of course, WRs with good awareness would be better at locating the ball in the air and making the adjustment to catch it. CBs are too good at knocking down passes even when the WR has 3 or 4 steps on them. They are also too good at shadowing the WRs. This is really bad on the All Madden level where CBs run with the WR step for step no matter how many different moves they make in their route and no matter how poorly rated the CB is. It is nearly impossible to complete a throw on All Madden when the CBs are in man coverage.

(5) Game Presentation. The game is getting a little boring. The commentary is boring, the crowd is never really excited, there are no highlights or pregame or postgame shows. Even the Super Bowl's new celebration is only a minor improvement. The game needs some kind of interactive feature from week to week to keep players entertained. Tony Bruno is horrendous and the newspapers are so redundant and uninformative. ESPN had the right idea with the game preparation and ESPN shows every week. The game preparation is a little tedious, but if there were like an actual playable practice mode to prepare for each week, it would be a lot better. I like the way you have 3 plays to practice to prepare for your opponent, but I have the same plays every week and very rarely do I practice any defensive plays. I think 5 plays for the offense and 5 plays for the defense would be a good number.

Overall, I think Madden is more fun to play than ESPN 2k5. Once you have the players on the field, Madden is a more fun game. But ESPN is more realistic and it has a lot of side features that are actually enjoyable. I mean, Owner Mode is a joke, NFL Superstar is just crap in my opinion and team morale and stuff like that just isn't a factor in Madden. I think if Madden incorporated a few aspects of 2k5 into their game, it would be fantastic. I think Madden has quite a way to go in terms of realism. I also think Madden needs an interactive way to improve players during the season in franchise mode. Players should improve or go down from week to week, not every 5 weeks. And John Madden and AL Michaels just need to sound more excited every once in a while. And please do something about that cheesy two-dimensional crowd. Let the crowd get excited for a 3rd or 4th down play. Let's hear the crowd roar. And can I please return at least one punt for a touchdown? Or at least make my blockers block instead of creating a circle around my PR and letting tacklers run right past them. For goodness sakes, change the end of game animations. Every game, the players do the exact same thing at the end. One guy shakes the camera, they show the losing Qb walking off the field and you see a few guys throwing up their hands because they won. I see this EVERY SINGLE GAME. Please change it. To the people at EA Sports, sit down and play an entire season on franchise mode and you will be able to see all of the minor things that need to be changed. For example the horrendous blocking on punt returns. I know the PS3 and XBox 360 will be capable of doing a lot more than our current systems, so I really expect to see some huge strides in the Madden franchise. If not, I don't think I'm going to waste the $50 or $60 to see better graphics and a roster update for another year of the same ol' game.