Madden NFL 12

As I was working on my 2011-12 Postseason Preview (now set to be posted sometime Thursday afternoon before 7:30pm), I happened to look at my calendar and saw the date, August 9th, and tried to remember what significance today’s date held for me. Finally I realized it: the Madden 12 demo launches today!

So I took a break, downloaded the demo on my PS3, and spent the next 20 minutes watching all the extras that came with the demo. Everything the design team was saying sounded good; check that, it all sounded great! But, as anyone who truly cares about the product they are planning to purchase would do, I had to play the game to get a good feel for it myself. So even as you read this, don’t take my word for it, use it to get yourself excited for your own gaming experience, just as I used the EA Sports Extras from the demo.

Now, this being the first demo I’ve ever downloaded prior to purchasing the complete game, I don’t have a great grasp on how things translate to the full game, though having seen ShakeDown2012’s video of him playing the demo for NCAA Football 12, I can assume that most of the presentation from the game will be similar, or the same, as what will be found in the full game on August 30.

I really liked the pre-game presentation. Probably the only problem with it that I had was the Packers and Bears players slapping hands with each other at mid-field just prior to the coin toss; handshakes, maybe, but high-fives and smiles? Not for this big of a rivalry anyway.

Staying on the topic of presentation, NCAA Football 12 was definitely done right, in my opinion. There has never been much of an emphasis on halftime, but you always see some graphic with highlights from the previous quarter at the end of each quarter, so the fact that they didn’t have any special halftime presentation didn’t bother me, especially considering how good a job they did with the end of quarter segments. The NFL is different, and for it you need a different presentation. Madden certainly delivered for me. The end-of-quarter segments are simply a panning of the stadium with the score box in the lower left corner. But the halftime presentation; wow! I definitely have ideas on improvement, and maybe it will be a little different (hopefully better, if so) for the full game, but the full-screen replays of both plays and players’ expressions on field is great.

My final comment on presentation is for the post-game segment saying, “This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience. Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent, is prohibited,” was awesome. Sure, it was a little silly and I definitely chuckled when I heard it, but it adds a certain level of authenticity to the game that I didn’t even know was missing.

As for the game play, it impressed me just as much as NCAA Football 12 did, which is to say, a whole heck of a lot! At one point I was unhappy when Julius Peppers broke of a block (a block I thought should have much more difficult to break) to tackle me when I tried to scramble through a whole. When I reviewed the replay, I realized that everything was smooth and realistic with how he broke off the block. I couldn’t find a single fault with anything concerning game play.

The best part was the difficulty. No, I’m not referring to ‘Rookie,’ ‘Pro,’ ‘All-Pro,’ and ‘All-Madden.’ I’m referring simply to the passing game. Usually I have been able to pick apart defenses with no problem. All new logic in zone coverage makes everything a little more difficult. Yes, where the defenders in coverage move is more realistic and makes sense in retrospect. But for someone who is used to the way defenders have moved in Madden in the past, it took some getting used to and I threw two picks in the game, the first one coming on my first pass. For those of you who like to dump the ball off to your HB, FB or TE in the flat, forget about using a quick bullet pass. You’ll have to time it right and lob it over the corner that broke off his receiver to cover that zone.

As with NCAA Football 12, they fixed the tackling animation in Madden 12, waiting until the actual point of impact to begin the tackle animation, and how much the players involved weight and the speed and direction at which they hit each other plays a huge factor in the result of the tackle (for instance, whether the runner will be able to fall forward for an extra yard or two or if he will be pushed back and forward progress will come into play). The same rules are involved with gang tackles.

I still have some work to do in figuring out the passing game. In NCAA Football 12, if you push down on the left analogue stick while passing to a receiver running a curl route, the ball will be thrown near the receiver’s feet, causing a low catch that isn’t defendable. When I tried the same trick in the Madden demo, the ball hung up in the air and a defender managed to pick it off (my second INT).

One more thing I saw that was really great is how players change over the course of the game. In the pause menu you can see a box on the right side of the screen that says something along the lines of ‘Dynamic Performance.’ In the demo I played, only Jay Cutler showed up in this box, but you could see some of the things that actually do make him the player he is. One of them concerned how much pressure he was feeling from the blitz. At one point it read ‘heavy,’ but as I piled on the sacks, it progressively changed to ‘paranoid.’ I felt this was pretty realistic since not only did he hit the dirt a lot last season, but he also seems to get rattled by pressure very easily.

Overall, I was very impressed with the demo. Additions would be welcome, especially if they come in presentation, but if this is how the game play will feel in-game for the final version of Madden 12, I’m perfectly content with that, too, as long as other features have been fixed, namely for superstar (since it already sounds as though they’ve taken pretty good care of the needed changes to franchise mode).

Remember to check back on Thursday for my preview of this year’s postseason. You can also follow me on twitter: @CPuffett. On there you’ll find sports updates and links to new blog posts.