Ok, played my first game just now. Navy @ ND on Varsity. I played Madden on All Madden extensively a few years ago, but with the new passing system I'd go in blind and see how it goes.
Started pretty rough, unable to score 1st quarter while Navy kicked a FG. I missed my own FG, the kicking does take a second to get used to. Feels like the arrow doesn't stop on a dime, it kinda keeps going a bit after you hit the button, like it's got momentum. Then, as someone else pointed out, you hold on the button to build power. I hit my extra points fine once I got the hang of it, first couple kickoffs weren't great. 2nd Quarter I focused on running more, Love is a bit of a cheat mode as someone said. He had great speed getting to the outside. OL averaged 12 pancakes each, they abused the Navy DL. Only ended up with one TD 1st half.
2nd half blew the barn doors off them. Got the hang of the passing, it seems to work a bit like the kicking where you're holding on the button for power. After missing my first several throws ended up going 12/26 for 283 yards and 5 TDs with Leonard. I kind of fell back into some of my favorite Madden passing concepts and that helped get things going. Jayden Thomas had a big day with 5 catches for 120 yards, did well with Medium out patterns, Kris Mitchell was at 4 catches for 70. Greathouse, Faison, and Mitchell had a couple each. I questioned the game's realism for a second when Greathouse had a drop, that shit doesn't happen.
I'm not sure what to make of the defense so far. Compared to when I played Madden a few years ago, they seem to be all over the place and confused a bit. Guys were out of position, not moving to the ball like I expected, etc. I had a hell of a time stopping Navy from driving down the field at first. I'd load up the box, but somehow their RBs were getting great yards still despite the fact their offense is their weakness and ND's strength is the D. Their OL was opening holes on ND's DL, it was pretty bad. I started guessing the play call before the snap and things changed in a hurry. I basically guessed they were going to run the ball every down unless it was 3rd and Long, and then Navy couldn't move the ball at all. Ogen, Mills, and Kiser all had Sacks. Morrison had one INT. Navy was completely shut down 2nd half once I started guessing the play type.
Some takeaways
Positive:
1.
Visually it's just beautiful. Not sure if I'm a big fan of the play selection graphics and transitions, feels less like I'm watching an actual game and more like a video game, but that's personal preference I guess. Players look great though, entrance to the stadium was great, There were times I thought it looked like live footage.
2. Feels like the game speed is ramped up. There were times NCAA/Madden felt a bit slow, not this game. Speaking of which, players will actually hurry to the line or you can force them to hurry to the line again it seems. I don't think Madden was always letting me do that last time around.
3. Passing feels crisp. I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with the new passing mechanics or switch back to the old way, but at least there's options to do so.
Negative:
1. I'm not seeing any way to import sounds into the game, and this hurts me greatly. There's NO 1812 Overture at the start of the 4th Quarter! There's no Here Come the Irish/Shipping Up to Boston at the start of the game (Although there is some crowd noise where everyone shouts "Irish" when the kicker kicks it). There's a lot of other missing sounds that I'd really like to put in the game, whether it's Crazy Train, or the Stripes, or all the ND band stuff I've used over the years. Really really disappointed they didn't bring this feature back.
2. The audio sounds very studio-ish. I think someone else pointed this out. It's lacking that raw feel you get when the band is playing live. This is another area where importing sounds could have fixed it. The audio isn't necessarily bad, but it just doesn't feel like you're at a game. It feels a bit phony/manufactured.
3. On the fence about the defensive AI as mentioned. I don't like having to guess what the play will be every time, but that seemed to be the only way I could stop Navy. They might play better on higher difficulties. I'm not crazy about the change to the Read Option button either, but I started getting used to it as the game went on. Honestly the Read Option didn't seem nearly as effective as it was in the last game, so I might just drop it out of the playbook. Madden has been big on the RPO, might work more on that and see how it behaves in college.
