Some NEW stuff

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Credit to MaddenAuthority for this..

No More Quick "Money" Passes - The Trips TE quick pass to (x) in the flats has been fixed so that it is no longer open. The receiver runs forward so that this pass is not open as easily. There still may be a few "money" quick passes this year, but they are not the same routes as last year's game.

New Formations - As far as we could tell there were 7 new offensive formations this year, but there may be more added. Currently, the new formations are Shotgun 4 WR-TE, Shotgun Tight, Shotgun 5 WR Bunch, Strong I Twin TE Big, Weak I Twin TE Big, and Singleback Twin TE Big (3 TE). I know many of you are excited about the 5 WR Bunch formation, and it does look promising, but the other formations looks very exciting too.

Formation Switch - This is definately the most exciting new feature on offense this year. You can come up to the line of scrimmage in Shotgun Normal (or any formation), and depending on your playbook you can change the set without changing the play. For example, you come out in Shotgun Normal and now you can formation shift into Shotgun Trips Bunch (if Trips Bunch is in your Playbook) but all the routes of your receivers are the exact same. You have the option to Formation Shift between 4 different formations depending on your playbook. If your playbook only has Shotgun Normal, you cannot shift to any other set from that formation. This will lead to every play being 4 different plays at the line of scrimmage. There are going to be several uses for this feature when designing an offense.

Hot Routes - You can use the Playmaker hot routes on any receiver this year, not just the one receiver that has been designated the Playmaker. Also, there will be custom hot routes this year that you can use from the pause menu. Although this feature was not available at E3, it was explained that you can set your hot routes to up to 18 different routes, so the variety will provide quite a bit of flexibility.

You can Hot Route ANY receiver this year - Even if your receiver is supposed to block, you can now hot route him to do any route. Last year, if a receiver was blocking, there was no way to change his route.

More Motion Options - Did you ever get annoyed when trying to run a 5 WR set and only being able to send the (R) receiver in motion? Now you can move all 5 receivers in motion from this set. In addition, nearly every set allows you to motion more receivers than a year ago. The only formations that we saw that were slightly restricted were the bunch sets. This is one reason that the Shotgun 5 WR Bunch, although intriguing, might not be as dominating as the Shotgun 5 WR normal set. The Bunch formation allows for 1, maybe 2 guys to go in motion, while the Shotgun 5 WR normal set allows for all five. This feature is sure to help people be more creative on offense.

Jetpacking???? - The manual positioning will not work this year, no matter how hard you try. It does seem that you can manually jump with guys with good jumping ratings, but its not the same animation, and the defender can get to the spot much easier now. In 2004, the jetpack consisted of clicking on and cutting under the pass, and clicking off. This year, if you do this you will not catch the ball. You need to go to the spot instead, and because of this the defender can also go to the spot. We are going to see many more User Pics this year for sure. The technique of beating the defender to the spot and getting underneath is still the principal, but its harder this year.

Motion Glitches?? - Most motion glitches have been worked out as far as we could tell. However, we did notice at least a few times that the DB played the motion wrong. The Producers of the game have assured us that this is being fixed currently and that there will be no motion glitch in the game for the upcoming season.

No Un-Bumpable Routes - There are no unbumpable routes at this point in the game. We tested this and tested this and could not find one route in the game that does not get bumped. Sometimes, even when sending a receiver in motion he still gets bumped. This is very frustrating for the offense, so you are going to have to have a second and third read if the defense is blitzing.

The way the Bump and Run is programmed this year takes into account the strength and awareness of the defender and receiver, and a formula is used so that there will be "wins" and "losses". If the WR "wins" he will beat the bump and run and the defender has the potential to be burned. This means that there will be much more of a risk / reward for using bump and run this year.

D-pad Jukes???? - In Madden 2004, we rarely saw the L1 / R1 or spin moves used. Why? Because it was so easy to use the defensive momentum against them, and the offense seemed to stop on a dime. In Madden 2005 this is not the case. When you try to make a sharp cut, you will notice an animation that slows the cut down. This means that it is MUCH harder to manually make the defense miss. We will see quite a bit more of the L1 / R1 and spin used in 2005 because it simply is so much harded to cut otherwise.

Protect the Ball feature - How many of us have lost critcal games because of fumbles? In 2005 there is a feature that the ball carrier can cover up the ball with two hands. He will run slower while doing this, but should prevent the late in the game fumbles that seem to always happen just before you kick the game winning field goal.

Option Routes - This is another new feature that we are very excited about. Some plays have receivers that have a primary route, and then two "option" routes. What happens is the receiver runs his route, and then, based on his awareness, reads the defense and runs either of the option routes depending on what defense he reads. For example, say you have a receiver that is supposed to run a 10 yard curl pattern. Now he gets done running his route and reads that the defense is in a Cover 2 zone. His two option routes are either a streak or a post corner pattern. An aware receiver will run the post corner pattern because he knows that this will be open against the Cover 2.

HB Pass changed - This year, if you bring up the passing window for the HB Pass, you can't bring it down until you pass the line of scrimmage.

Chance Audible from Play-Call Screen - This is a feature that works for both offense and defense. You have the ability to change 1 audible from the Playcall screen. This feature will allow you to call 2 plays in the huddle, and then pick the one you want to run at the line of scrimmage. Defensively, you can do the same thing.

No Mirror Flipping - At this point there was no mirror flipping of plays in the game for Madden 2005.

Defensive Changes

Individual Player Matchups - From the pause menu, you will have the option to match up any DB up on any receiver you want, regardless of where the receiver is lined up. This feature was not available at E3 so it is hard to go into any more detail about this at this time.

Hot Route Any Defender - Any of the 11 defenders on the field can have their defensive assignment changed. There are 5 different routes that can be used. When controlling a DB, pressure up on the R3 stick it sends the defender into a deep zone, left makes the defender spy the QB, right makes the DB cover the flats to the side they are on, and down makes the defender blitz. When controlling a LB or DL player, the hot routes are the same except that by pressing up on the R3 stick causes the defender to play a short zone instead of a deep zone.

*Also, by pressing down twice you can make your defender run a QB contain pass rush route. This is a new route added this year that makes the defender take an angle to the outside while rushing the passes and play the mobile QB much better. The defender will still try to rush the passer, but is much more catious about engaging an offensive linemen.

Safeties have added Hot Route capabilites - Safeties have the ability to man up on any receiver that you want them to guard. Therefore, if you run a Quarter play, you could actually quadruple team a receiver if you want to. This fuction will really help change the look of the defense, and will give many options to the defense that were never there in 2004.

Linebacker at DE package - There will now be a package in the Dime and Quarter formation to put a LB in at DE to rush the passer.

Man Lock Turn On/Off - There is an option this year to turn the man lock off. This keeps the offense from being able to tell if the defense is in man or zone. The great thing about the defense this year is that it is going to be so easy to disguise.

Bump and Run - As explained in the offensive part of this article, there are not unbumpable routes, and even when a receiver is sent in motion he is sometimes bumped. The bump and run seems very effective this year but it is said that it will be very risky also.

Invididual Bump and Run - You can actually call bump and run with 1 defender at a time now also, allowing for bumping one receiver, while playing the other receivers back.

Hit Stick - This feature sounds very enticing, as the premise is that there will be more hard hits that cause fumbles and injuries. When attempting this feature, it did not lok as promising as advertised. The idea is nice, and with a couple months left before the game comes out this feature might be tweaked a bit.

No Playmaker Up/Down - There is no playmaker up or down after the snap to read run or pass at this point. There is some talk of putting it back in the game, but it will most likely be with a new button on the stick because the Hit Stick feature is taking the R3 stick.

More Defensive Line Angle Stunts - There is a new feature this season that allows for you to change your defensive line to stunt left, stunt right, and possible a few more angled pass rushes.

Bring Defenders down to the LOS - This year there is an option that brings all 11 defenders down toward the line of scrimmage, much like the Nickel Blitz formation from last year. Instead of only being able to do it with one formation as in 2004, it can be done with EVERY formation in 2005.

Defensive Pass Rushers can Hold Hands Up - When rushing the passer, you have the option to hold your hands up in the air to attempt to block the pass. This is a nice feature and the defenders hands do not go up in the air and back down, they stay up.

Slightly Different Playbooks - The defensive playbooks have some new plays, although no new formations at this point. There is some talk about adding at least one new formation, but it is in the beginning stages at this point.

New Blitz Angles - There are new defensive blitz angles this year on several of the defensive plays. This could prove to be very tricky for the offense to pick up.

Audible Down???? - There is some question about the effectiveness of audibling down. The rumor is that when you audible down your defenders will simply act too stupid. The ratings will go too far down for this to be an effective technique as in years past. Only time will tell if this is the case or not.

Better A.I. - The defense reacts to everything much better than last year. The flats is guarded extremely well, as it will be much harder to throw underneath the defense this year. Also, when you click on, you get instant control of the defender instead of the slight pause that always seems to happen in 2004.

Set Audible from the Playcall screen - As stated in the offensive changes, you will have the ability to change 1 audible from the playcall screen. This will allow for you to call 2 plays, and the come to the line of scrimmage to decide which to run.

General Changes

Animations - We notice hundreds of new animations for this year's game. Many of these animations will be crutial to the success of your game this year. The quicker you can master these new animations, the quicker you will become dominant in this game.

Squib Kick - There is a new squib kick feature that seems extemely effective. At the current time it is very hard to pick the ball up. We saw the offense kick a squib kick to the 10 yard line, and then go recover. There is a good chance that this will be changed by the time the game comes out.

Kickoffs - The offense lines up with one guy back for the kick, and one guy in front of him. The kicks seem much slower this year. On the kickoff, the camera spins around so that the offense sees the ball much quicker, and the defense can see who they are running down field with.

Onsides Kicks - There is no moving the arrow before kicking an onsides kick this year. Its gonna take a bit more luck than skill in 2005 to recover an onsides kick.

Uniform Options - There are SEVERAL more uniform options this year. Many of the uniforms on the game have not even been worn in the NFL by their respective teams yet. In addition, you will have the option to change uniforms online this year.

No Online Challenge of Plays - There is still no challenging online of plays.

Online Mini Camp Drill - Rushing Attack - There will be an online rushing attack drill that you can play with two players online.

Online Game Tracker while in game - You can actually monitor other people's scores online while you are in the middle of the game. No need to wait to start a game, just to watch a score.