Madden 2012: My Very Early and Crude Impressions

I’m not saying the new E.A. Madden Sports game is crude, only that my impressions are not anywhere near complete.  My impressions of the game are in the initial stages. I loved the 2011 version of the game so it’ll take some getting use to, but for those who complain the game doesn’t do enough to change from year to year (and thus not worth the price) that is not a worry. There is a definitive progression of the game. Today I had a busy day, I bought the game around noon but only got a chance to play one exhibition game, so my final review of the game will be coming out after I have a few days to digest all of the new features. I should also mention that my system of choice (and it’s an easy choice because I only have one system) is the PS3.

The Graphics

The graphics continue to trend towards realism. And the graphics are nice. I think the players look bulkier, but that’s probably closer to “realism” considering NFL players are much bigger in person than we tend to realize watching the game on T.V. (compared to the average male).

In Madden 2012 Eli Manning is one Ugly SOB

Camera Angles

One thing that wasn’t great. At least not for me, were the new camera angles. The camera angle change that immediately stands out are on special teams. There is an option where you can hit the “R2 button” (I believe) to change the camera angle back to original. I’ll have to explore my options here.

Kicking

Every year one change EA feels they have to make is adjusting the way kicking happens. This year it’s different, again. The “aimer” (by that I mean the arrow that points the direction of the kicks for field goals and kicking off) is much narrower than last year’s version. Kicking off happens similar to the way the baseball games are often played with the pitching mechanism. You hit x to start the power and have to hit it in a range to find the power and then hit x again on the way back down for accuracy. I only made one field goal attempt and a couple of kickoffs, but so far I’m not loving it. It’s not bad, it’s just an adjustment. I’m not an old stick in the mud who can’t stand change, but I never thought anything was wrong with the kicking system last year. It seems this way might be slightly more diffcult which is a plus. I’m too good to punt. So I don’t know how punting works yet (not really, I just didn’t punt in this game. I’m not one of those guys who NEVER punts. I hate those guys).

Field Entrances

I’m not sure how every team is going to start the game, but that was something that the E.A. development team has harped on leading up to Madden’s release date, so I imagine that there’ll be a lot of differences between each team’s entrance.

New Features

Madden 2012 promised new features in franchise mode ,and I can’t wait to explore them. I love playing a franchise. I do a fantasy draft and build my team up that way. One of the new features of the franchise mode is player progression (they also brought back practice). Players can no go from “Rex Ryan” in confidence to the Cowardly Lion (Not really). What does happen though is if a player has a good game his confidence going into the next game is higher. If he strings together a few good games he gets on a hot streak. Conversely, if he doesn’t play well he gets on a cold streak. This is labeled “dynamic player performance” by EA Sports.

The other major change (and I’m assuming major) is that players now have a consistency factor. A player like Tom Brady will remain consistent in the way he plays from game to game. A young player like a Tim Tebow or Sam Bradford will not be as consistent. Sometimes they’ll just play bad and you’ll have to deal with that. It adds a new dimension that I’m looking forward to, it’s frustrating how little quarterback play matters some times in Madden (to me) this could change that dramatically.

I love the franchise mode like I stated before and it could be even more fun this year. What is promised is a faster paced Free agency period where teams get into bidding wars (which is cool), new scouting features (which I have not yet personally used). For football junkies one thing Madden 2012 added was expanded rosters. No preseason roster cuts happen and you must personally whittle down the roster from 75 to game day size, which is a really nifty feature. It will finally place importance on preseason games. If you like a way a player plays in your preseason game (should you choose to play those games) he will make the roster. Every year training camp sensations come out of nowhere and make teams, now they will in your madden franchise as well. From Madden’s home page

All of those invitees and any rookies on the team will have their ratings locked at the start of the preseason. Each week that those players stay on the roster, we’ll unlock a few ratings for them. Their overall rating will evolve as we release those ratings, giving you a better idea of how good they really are. Just because a training camp invitee’s overall rating says it’s a 99 in week one doesn’t mean that his real overall is that high.

By the end of the preseason, if you keep a rookie or training camp invite on the roster for all four weeks, his ratings will be completely unlocked and you’ll know his true overall rating. At that point, you’ll know if you made a mistake by keeping him or if you found a diamond in the rough.

This features sounds awesome. Who doesn’t want to be their own G.M. We’re all our teams armchair G.M. Now we get to be in Madden as well.

We also do an interesting thing with rookies you draft beyond year one in franchise mode.

Let’s say that you went through the scouting process and never scouted a QB who was projected to go in the top 10. You get to the offseason and head into the draft. That QB falls to you at pick #15 and you pull the trigger and draft him. When you sign him to a contract, his ratings will not be immediately unlocked.  He’ll have to go through the rating unlock process in the preseason just like the training camp invites. If you scouted a player fully and then drafted him, his ratings will be unlocked going into the preseason.

I’m really looking forward to playing the franchise mode and will (more than likely) simulate the first regular season to get into the nitty gritty off-season things.  And if that wasn’t enough there’s more.

There are now several scouting stages, including the regular season, Pro Days, NFL Combine and individual workouts.

At the start of the regular season, every draft rookie’s ratings are locked.

During each stage, you’re allowed to select a limited number of players to scout and the stage itself determines which ratings will be unlocked.

If you scout a player during the Combine stage, you will unlock his physical ratings like speed, agility and strength. If you scout them in Pro Days, you’ll unlock some of his intangibles.

If you choose to scout him during individual workouts, you’ll unlock everything…including his potential and traits. The catch is that you can only scout a small amount of players during individual workouts…so you’ll need to unlock as much information as you can before you get there.

Franchise mode really has a ton of potential this year with Madden 2012. Whether or not that will actually play itself out as a positive thing remains to be seen, but I’m liking what I’m promised so far.

You can click here for Madden’s homepage on some of the other new features.

Early Impressions on Game Play

Here are some of my early (and very early impressions on game play).

-still can’t believe how ugly Eli Manning is in Madden 2012.

-The game is faster. Last year I found the running to be very difficult, this year it seems like it might be too easy. I’m not sure yet because I’ve only had a brief taste of the full game, but so far it’s not bad. I’ll have to play some online games to see if that’s the case. The gameplay is definitely faster.

-The presnap is different and I don’t like it. The layouts are also different and will take some adjusting to, but it’s not terrible. What I don’t like is having to click R3 and then it lines right up. I like being able to do the presnap looks like before, again an adjustment, but not great.

-I’m interested and hoping to see more actual differentiation between player awarnesses. That always bothers me I’ll report more on that later. So far not noticing a huge factor.

There’s a new collision system, which is cool, but I’ve only had an instance of this so I’ll see if it remains fun or gets annoying.

Those of you with the game, let me know what you think. Those without it, what do you want to know, I’ll be playing and I’ll give you my take on it.

Bottom line: if you are worried the game hasn’t changed enough to shell out 65 bucks, don’t be. It’s different. And in a lot of ways better (very early in that evaluation though). If you’re a guy who doesn’t like change, maybe you stay away from the game.

Well, that’s my very early review of Madden 2012. I enjoy it and I’m excited for the franchise mode. The layout is completely different and the game play is faster, which will take some getting used to, but it’s promising.

I’ll be on PS3 ID: RochesterDude85

Come Get Some.