VSN's Madden NFL 13 Review

[Atlas]

Madden NFL 13 INTRO EA’s Madden NFL Football franchise has suffered a fair amount of growing pains during the “next gen” console era. Deserved or not, the series has become the poster boy for annual franchises releasing with very little improvement. Hardcore Madden players would waste no time pointing out the differences between each release, [...]

http://www.virtualsportsnetwork.com/2012/08/24/madden-nf-13-review/

[Jclentzthadon]

Great stuff fellas well done! Thank you!

[Realist]

The intro with Ray Lewis is nice. Gets me ready to go

[dave]

I've enjoyed the game so far ... and the Nantz/Simms team is 1,000x better than Gus and Collinsworth ... mostly Gus.

OK, they make the occasional mistake, but they don't sound robotic whatsoever.

Too early to make a final judgement, but early impressions are good. Gotta try it on slow game speed, out of curiosity.

[DJ Rhude]

Best Madden in years

[TimsGiants]

Imho the gameplay is worse than 12s. I love everything else about madden 13 immersion wise but the gameplay is lacking.

For things I like lets just say everything eye candy wise

The gameplay still plays the same but worse also.

All new engine? Nah same shit just random trips and bunch 3 sttoges crap after the play.

Total control passing took away many WR user animations. There might be a few routes worth usering but most you have to let the cpu do in order to get the right animation.

I dont know the more I think about it maybe its more realistic not being able to do all the crazy user catches we are used to. It really is more about reads and timing but just not as much fun.

On defense the only way i can describe it feels like the offense gets off the ball at top speed on running plays but the defense starts every play in the mud.

Another wierd thing... ball hawk crap. If I jump a route manually I drop the pick everytime it seems. Balls thrown right to me or ones I swooped on all were dropped. My picks that I got myself were mainly streaks running down field with the wr.

But If I hold Tri down to me it seemed like my other AI controlled defenders made more picks.

I dont know..game control sucks this year. I want to be able to do the same running and receiving animations the cpu does during a play but that doesnt seem possible. User controlled players at at the same speed as cpu ones. Makes sense why they added defensive assit and other assist crap over last few years.

Oh yeah the line play still sucks. Why when I play the cpu they bullrush and just beat my line but my guys just play patty cake? Cpu has all day to throw.

[JimLeavy59]

I will say this some guys are staying in certain animations far too long just long enough to get tackled.

[Saluki]

That's been a problem with breaking tackles for a while now. Last year all the break tackle animations were super slow

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[killgod]

I haven't had issue triggering a variety of animation as a user catch. Be it a toe drag, one hander, etc. It's a very precise timing and direction of how you attack the spot with your receiver.

I've always thought in the past it took too long to get out of animations and they never went anywhere, this year I think it's more balanced. I've seen a decent amount of plays where the player gets free and is able to cut back into an open lane and make a good gain from it just about as often as I've seen a 2nd man come in a smack the shit out of him.

[Steel Mamba]

Is it more realistic than 2k8?

[Aso]

^ Good question

From playing just the demo, I have to say this probably is the best football game of all time in terms of gameplay. As much as I love 2K8 I think Madden may have won me over. Can't wait to get my hands on the actual game. I was all over 2K8's dick earlier this summer too. Still would like to see that classic 2K vs EA football game competition though.

[ThunderHorse]

I'm still playing 2k8. which is still interesting to me considering the game's age.

How many years do you think you could continue to play Madden 13? 12? 11? 10? etc.

This is the make or break year for me, if Madden doesn't give me a better experience than a Generic football game with piss poor player models that's 5 years old, I've promised myself not to throw any more $ at EA.

[spiker]

Better written than the NCAA review.

[killgod]

I'm still playing 2k8. which is still interesting to me considering the game's age.

How many years do you think you could continue to play Madden 13? 12? 11? 10? etc.

This is the make or break year for me, if Madden doesn't give me a better experience than a Generic football game with piss poor player models that's 5 years old, I've promised myself not to throw any more $ at EA.

Better experience? Surely. Legacy issues still exist (line play still is crap, turnovers and points still happen to easy) and it's largely still the same Madden you would expect, but the physics engine is what makes it this year. Variety always exists where it never did, unexpected happens on many plays and the new passing is pretty tight. Having the ability to use sliders online might allow us to tone down some things we don't like as well. One downfall of the physics is that it can get a bit messy in the trenches making the run game over play the outside, but if you spread out to defend that space does open in the middle so I'm still finding my opinion on it.

Offline, not so much. The AI is worse than ever..truly it's really bad, terrible play calling and clock management. Total waste of time IMO. When you're up a score, under 2 to go, and the CPU almost always comes out in some base 2/2/1 set...runs the ball for a yard, then hurries up to spike it. You just want to turn the shit off. Complete retardation.

CC is looking good, but isn't as amazing as hyped up to be. Things are not as well done (practice is stupid as hell, XP rewards make no sense and for superstar it makes less than no sense) and some things are still lacking (depth charts need to be deeper, preseason needs better options to bring on players without constant pausing, no special teams setup)...but I'm still happy with it. Draft and the Classes, scouting, FA, News Center are all nice. Hard to say if XP is a boom or bust yet until we do a couple seasons in our OF's.

Overall I think CC was designed for Online play, not Offline.

[Garrett67]

I am really not liking what I am reading over at OS in the Impressions thread (I'm on page 14 but I read threads backwards, newest to oldest).

Don't get me wrong, they are saying good things also and I'm sure the first patch will take care of some of it.

It sounds to me like the biggest gripe is the CPU play calling, which I did experience in the demo (most noticeably , under 2 minutes)

Also, there is some kind of bug? (although, I'm sure its not the only one)

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/madden-nfl-football/570464-huge-man-coverage-bug-video-proof.html

I am normally an offline player, but I might play real people this year even though I always lose. But I really can't afford a new controller, so Twigg might actually get a matchup this year.