I normally just go with the flow on Madden. I gave up complaining about blocking AI (25 years and it's still broken, as in completely broken) but this year really takes the cake.
$100 fucking dollars (ok mostly for the Sunday Ticket) but the Madden 25 Anniv edition literally is nothing but a minor update to Madden 13 + some bullshit ultimate team nonsense + some garbage amazon DLC filler.
The major tweaks to this year? They ruined passing LOL. Passes have no proper trajectory now. They did this to nerf Online Hail Mary cheesers. But the result is everyone is throwing a ton of INTs, it's completely unrealistic. Wide open WRs who beat the CB by 2-3 feet wait for a pass, from QBs with 90+ Throw Power, and it's a line drive or underthrown every time.
I figured I had the controls wrong or something this year, then I checked Operation Sports and it's confirmed.
The Madden devs are long known for sacrificing realism for the sake of multiplayer balance. And that's what we have now.
Scores look realistic - 25-17 and such... but how you get to that score is highly unrealistic. What happens is long short passing drives, with completion rates of 85% etc... and if you keep it conservative, you get a TD. If you attempt a long pass, it's like flipping a 3 sided coin, INT, Breakup, or amazing challenged catch reception.
Unlike the more realistic, pass hitting the dirt, sailing out of bounds, or a simple catch. These things do not seem to exist. I haven't seen a single pass just hit the dirt. Every single pass is touched by someone, usually the CPU.
The CPU awareness still 'cheats'. It will know exactly where your pass is going the moment you press the button. Unfortunately this means mediocre MLBs getting INTs constantly, or just batting down passes like they are all pro Free Safeties.
The running game is pointless, except for the CPU which magically gets suction cup Oline blocking when the CPU runs the ball. But when I run the ball, I have to break 3 tackles in the backfield just to get 1 yard (behind a 85+ rated Oline rofl) I avgd. 5 yards per carry , but I only ran it 4 times and 1 was a QB scramble. Even with the seemingly good 5 yards per carry, again that was only because of final stats being balanced. Each particular run was unrealistic nonsense. I had Brandon Bolden acting like Barry Sanders just to sneak in an 8 yard run. Hell most of the juking was just to get to the line of scrimmage. Once you actually pass the LoS running is easy. It's compensating for all the missed blocks. Kotaku review post has some basic videos showing how broken blocking is, especially for TEs and WRs.
The Screen pass cheese is back again. CPU or multiplayer, defending it is redonk and the best way to defend it is to exploit the broken AI and chase from behind.
Closing speed is another issue, again this year the CPU magically can sprint faster than your fastest player even if the CPU is 10pts slower.
So yeah, at the end of the game, the stats look realistic. But when you play the game, each drive is full of highly unrealistic nonsense. The most effective passes are still the slants and crossing routes against main to man. Zone D still requires you cheese the CPU and pass where you know he can't catch it, even tho the CPU is reacting faster and earlier than your CPU controlled target.
The score will look satisfying, but when you think back to how many offensive plays are actually run in an NFL game, you realize you ran about 40% and ended up with the same score.
Which means of course, if you punt 1 or 2 times, you will likely lose big. Which is completely unrealistic nonsense. I kicked 1 FG and as soon as I kicked it, I knew I would lose the game because ... it's madden and kicking a FG is a complete waste of time.
This might as well be arena football.
It seems they have 'fixed' Dline sacks now, you no longer have to cheese and exploit with off play stunts or wide lineups. You can just get a real sack, the CPU doesn't magically throw the ball away right before the sack every single time like last year.
The first patch also slows down the menus and gameplay. Everything loads slower with the patch (PS3) and people are going apeshit about it. A few times I thought my PS3 froze but it was just 10 seconds of loading to go from 1 menu screen to the next. LOL. I have a SSD HDD too
