Just played Madden Online

[rhombic21]

I just played my first game of Madden online (a 35-14 loss), and I gotta say that I'm thouroughly impressed. There were so many things that are better than NCAA (from a intellectual point of view). There are all sorts of combo zones, zone blitzes that are effective, and other things that can confuse the offense. In NCAA I can predict with 85% accuracy what the D is running just based on pre-snap alignments, but in Madden I NEVER knew what was coming (the fact that I've never played a game/practised a single play in Madden probably contributed to that, but still).

Also, HB's break A LOT more tackles if it's a DB, but also get stopped cold on gang tackles, so no dime defense to stop the run.

Also, if you throw on the run, you pay dearly, several times the throwing motion is incredibly ackward, and the ball will be WAY off.

And with Playmaker control, there's no such thing as a formation with no weakside runs (think I form minus Speed option).

I did OK on offense (over 360 total yards), but on defense I couldn't stop the run or the pass effectively. Part of that was also due to the fact that the game plays a lot differently in terms of judging the ball in mid-air, and that the players seem to have a lot more momentum, making it much harder to switch directions on a dime.

Now I love college football, and I really don't give much of a rat's a** about the NFL, but as a football fan, Madden offers a lot more incentives to be a better all around fooball strategist. There's no way you can get away with running a simplistic scheme against a quality player.

Man, after playing Madden, I really wish NCAA would implement HALF of the playcalling strategies that Madden employs.

[HogsRule22]

there is also a better connection speed on madden. I rarely see any lag on madden online. I still love college football so much more, and i love the option, that i would always rather play NCAA than Madden

IMO

[SoJon]

madden has create a formation and stuff like that, so you could created the wishbone, or my old highschool offense or whatever...

its pretty neat, even though ive only spent like 2 days on the game (total, not game time)
when my buddy had borrowed ncaa

madden has alot of cool features, i just cant get into it

but what i hate about madden is the small offensive playbooks

[The_Juggernaut]

I saw you on Rhombic and thought WTF is Rhombic doing playing Madden, lol.

In your opinion would it be harder to cheeze in Madden? If seems like it would just becuase you can run double QB spies and blitz both corners and cool **** like that. After this post i am seriously considering gettin online with Madden.

[rhombic21]

madden has alot of cool features, i just cant get into it

but what i hate about madden is the small offensive playbooks

I hear ya man, it's a little hard for me to get excited about too (and it certainly isn't enough for me to give up NCAA full time).

I don't know what you mean about the small playbooks. It looked to me like the playbooks were about the same size, or maybe even a touch bigger than NCAA. You do know that if you hit over, you get more forms for that set. For instance when you look at I form in the Cowboys playbook, if you hit over you've got I form twins, and I form big, and I form Normal. Looked like each playbook had 3-4 "base" sets and then usually 2-4 variations on each of those sets, which is about the same as NCAA.

[rhombic21]

After a few more games, I gotta say that we're getting screwed with NCAA.

They have so many more options for Madden online that it's not even funny.

-You can set your rosters pregame, for every team.

-You can set "packages" so that you can make quick subsitutions (ie.., switch corners, sub HB, have 2 HB backfields, have Jumbo backfield, etc...) and you can do it from the playcall screen at the touch of a button.

-There is almost NO lag compared to NCAA online, it's not even funny. Every game is like the BEST connection with NCAA.

-There are so many more people who play, that it's much easier to find a "straight" game. There are a lot more cheeser's too, but I'd rather have a larger pool of quality players to choose from, since about 5% of NCAA online players fall in that category.

-The teams are so much more even, that you can really just pick a team to fit your style. Whereas in NCAA there are only 3-5 "fair" matchups for any given team (except for the non Bama/Michigan group B+ teams, which has the most variety in terms of matchups). In Madden you can take almost ANY team and have a "fair" chance to win the game. I took the "Boys" and beat Tampa Bay by 2 TD's, and my opponent had a decent amount of talent.

-You get punished if you run Dime defense all the time. In that game vs Tampa, my opponent came out in quarters defense (3 lineman, 1 LB, 7 DB's), and dime defense a couple times, and Hambrick broke BIG runs up the middle. I just played a game of NCAA online where I was Tennessee and my opponent was Pitt. He ran Dime EVERY down, though he mixed up his playcalls. Using this defense he held me to under 75 yards rushing, mostly on 3-5 yard gains, with a few big ones.

-They actually have an option where EA will run an online tournament for you, and they also have EA sponsored tourney's.

Then you add in playmaker controls (which I honestly don't use nearly enough), and the sophisticated playbooks (on both sides of the ball), and it's obvious that EA is leaving a LOT of stuff out of NCAA that they put in Madden (stuff they'll probably add next year as a "new" feature).

This really sucks for me because I honestly don't care at all about the NFL. I mean, I recognize that it's football in it's highest form, but I just don't care for it. But I can't even use OU online, and one of the features of NCAA over the NFL is the wide variety of teams, a factor that really get's lost in online play. More and more it seems like I play some variation of the same matchups over and over.

But anyways, if any of you guys who are just football junkies like me are interested, hit me up for some Madden some time. I'll still be on NCAA because I love the college game too much to leave, but I'm definitely going to start giving Madden more playing time.

[uconn4]

Right after I got both games, obviously I played NCAA a ton. Then, I started playing Madden online. Right away I noticed the same things you noticed. The running game is much more realistic, (Can run vs dime) there is no lag whatsoever, and there are so many more defensive plays. Madden is just harder to get into because I have always been a NCAA fan first, so I always play this game. I am so much better at it than Madden, that Madden is sort of annoying to me. (Going for user picks when I play Madden KILLS me everytime-I can't do it yet) I know what your talking about when you say you can't really get into it, I have the same problem. I was liking Madden overall, but think I switched back because of the leagues I'm in and stuff. Also because of you guys, I am guaranteed a good game. I think this weekend I'm gonna start playing more Madden however...whats your online name? I guess I'll go with uconn23 for mine, hope to see you online.

[rhombic21]

I'm using rhombic7 for both NCAA and Madden right now. Hope to see you online for one of them, we've had some great games in the past.

[uconn4]

yep. im gonna get on right now. I just tried playing vs the cpu for practice, and in 4 minute quarters, on PRO, I lost to the texans, playing as teh dolphins 47-31. :D My defense is just absolutely horrible in that game

[rhombic21]

Yeah, I'm awesome on Offense, but my defense needs serious work.

One thing that I'm really realizing is that you really need to protect against the deep ball in this game, unless you have superstar CB's. I had a game where I was the Panthers playing against the Dolphins, and I gave up SEVERAL first downs on third and LONG. Another thing is the fact that Cover 2 zone is not nearly the force in Madden as it is in NCAA. It's actually pretty easy to dissect because the CB's play in the flats like they should, leaving a window between the CB and the S on the sideline (unlike NCAA where the CB's play about 5-10 yards off the LOS, which makes it much harder to gain significant yardage against it.)

What team do you run with? I've been using the Cowboys, because their secondary is awesome, and I suck at pass defense. But I'm thinking that I want to take a team with more of a running game (Hambrick is SO SLOW) and a better QB.

Anyhow, good luck, hopefully we can get a game in sometime.

[SoJon]

I hear ya man, it's a little hard for me to get excited about too (and it certainly isn't enough for me to give up NCAA full time).

I don't know what you mean about the small playbooks. It looked to me like the playbooks were about the same size, or maybe even a touch bigger than NCAA. You do know that if you hit over, you get more forms for that set. For instance when you look at I form in the Cowboys playbook, if you hit over you've got I form twins, and I form big, and I form Normal. Looked like each playbook had 3-4 "base" sets and then usually 2-4 variations on each of those sets, which is about the same as NCAA. dammit...
i did not know that

i remember the global playbooks on ncaa (for ps1)had that feature, but i never thought about it in madden

this is the first madden ive owned, and ive played a tiny bit of 02 and 03

it just pissed me off cause i kept having to run the same plays over and over... lol

[JTrain]

Madden definitely has it's fair share of flaws too. The 70 yard bombs thrown with perfect accuracy down the sidelines are ridiculous. Plus the DB AI can be just awful in some areas (like on deep balls when the DB has a step on the receiver and he just keeps running and lets the WR catch it basically right off his back)

[rhombic21]

Madden definitely has it's fair share of flaws too. The 70 yard bombs thrown with perfect accuracy down the sidelines are ridiculous. Plus the DB AI can be just awful in some areas (like on deep balls when the DB has a step on the receiver and he just keeps running and lets the WR catch it basically right off his back)

Yeah, I noticed that too. Gameplay wise I think NCAA is darn near perfect, which is why it upsets me to see all the "little things" that could have made the game so much better, left out when EA obviously knew how to implement them.

[hakaida]

I play madden exclusively online now. NCAA has better gameplay but it's hard to find someone online willing to play miami and playing someone who cheeses will almost certainly get you the loss. With madden it's a lot easier for me to beat most of the cheesers with the better defenses and it's so much easier getting games no matter what team you use. my username is bullfrogs808 if any of you want to look for me online.

[UMCanes50]

Probably from a football only perspective (gameplay wise) the only thing worse is the user control on defense and lack of the option

Having no option sucks... and just the ability to pitch it on normal plays is awsome...

Also in madden from a pass perspective its very hard to make an impact on D with a user controlled player. I played multiple seasons on heisman and multiple on all madden... On heisman i averaged about 1.3 user picks per game (where i controlled my player the ENTIRE play) but in madden this only happened about once a season.

I kindof wish it would let me use my D playbook online ( i created every single play)... but if people could use offensive playbooks online the cheese would be out of control...

[kella]

Rhombic:

THANK YOU for pointing out how teams are so unbalanced! In REAL LIFE NCAA football smaller teams sometimes DO beat larger teams.

The fact that in NCAA the SPD rating alone is so skewed isn't even fair. For instance, University of Toledo uses short, quick, very fast receivers for its offense. Yet in the game you WON'T EVER see a UT player with a SPD rating of 92 or 93, unless he is a national star.

The difference in speed is not that ridiculous. Yes, Ohio State definitely has faster players overall than Bowling Green, but obviously BGSU hung with them in the real season. The speed is not that much different between big D-1 schools. I think they should adjust AWR to compensate for the difference in talent, instead they make QBs less accurate and powerful and make everyone slower on the mid-majors.