So who's "all in" for this one? I'm new to the world of x-box 360/live, so i don't know who on the board plays madden, but I'm looking forward to playing some of you lot in this one.

I haven't fucked with madden since.... 2008 on the PS2? I forget the specific year, but I do remember that vince young is a god in that game and JaMarcus Russell had his purple drank powers of 99 THP and he was mobile enough to gain ~50-100 yards a game and be unstoppable on the goal-line..... So what this means is that i'm going to likely suck profusely for a month or two at least.... my only experience with the x-box 360 madden engine was playing the NCAA football 2012 demo a couple'a times, which was enough to make me say "ok yeah, i'm definitely getting madden"

Otherwise, I hear that there's a new graphics/game engine with some updated physics that promises to make tackling more realistic and rah rah rah rah... they're the only game in town so you gotta take what you can get. I haven't fucked with this generation of Madden games, so I'm just hoping that there's a nice franchise mode, the ability to update rosters mid-season so regular teams are that much more "realistic" and then I hope that online play is solid enough to allow me to easily catch random games as easily as I can hollar @ my friends list and get a game going with them.

So who wants some when this game drops? my x-box live name is "aphexedvexed" and i'd love to get my asses kicked by the whole lot of you quality CSFMB people. Shit, does anyone else have marvel vs capcom 3, soul calibur 4, super street fighter 4, or NBA Jam? I'll take any of you chumps in those games too.

hasta la good riddance!

# the dis/honourable sir doctor admiral james danger disdain XXXVII, esq.

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I'm playing a ton of NCAA 2012, but gonna skip Madden this year.

Haven't bought a sports game in 7-8 years. I simply can't justify buying the same game every year for $60 dollars. Sure there are new rosters, maybe some new gameplay elements, achievements and tweaks here and there but it's the same damn game every single year. The same engine, pretty much the same canned animations etc.

CAN'T DO IT.

Played the demo once so far. Wasn't wowed. May take a pass this time or at least purchase the game around seasons end when it's cheap...

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Well this game comes out at midnight tonight.

Most noticeably for me in the Demo so far has been increased accuracy in hitting (2nd guys to the pile affect the play, etc) and the reality of receiving.



Love the demo, will buy.

Ill be buying this tomorrow afternoon.

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This game has been getting raked over the coals by numerous sites including GameInformer and Gamespot. Many are suggesting the Madden brand has taken a "step back" from past efforts.

I'd have to agree with them. It doesn't have to be a yearly release because that's how it stagnates and that's why the developers can't keep the quality of the game up. The actual game engine has been the same since the Xbox360's debut, hell, it might (I believe I've read, but I need to actual try to find the articles) have roots back to the PS2/Xbox engine. The game just looks more and more dated and more and more a carbon copy with minor tweaks compared to previous versions.

Here is your remedy, release the game and the next year just release what ever chintzy updates+roster updates etc as DLC for a fee and for those who don't have internet access have it available as a boxed update like Bethesda did with Fallout DLC. You could this every 2 years. Than the developers could actually take the time necessary to improve the game in meaningful ways instead of adding rinky dink BS.

It's almost like the most effort nowadays that is put into a Madden game is the giant, bold, exciting, eye catching marketing bullshit that they slap on the back of the box.

-"New for 2012: Super Dynamic Ultra Spin Moves!" or "It's filled with new features! New Mascots! New Plays! New AI Head-Ball Tracking!" ....I mean, really? Good lord. If only other developers could make football games.....

The game has been the same pretty much since 2004 or 2005.

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Exactly why I'm not getting this one (yet). Seems almost identical to last season...

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I'm playing the Wii and the 64. My 4th ps2 crapped out and I am still not buying a ps3 if I can't play my ps2 games on it.

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They've been pretty much identical for a decade.

I used to buy it every other year, but I just stopped. Last one I bought was probably 2007 or 2008.

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aight... even tho my copy technically shipped over last night, i didn't have a chance to pick it up til today. i haven't fucked with madden since 2008 on the PS2, and let me tell you i was pretty solid and tight in that game. i had the controls down so i could fully control what was going on....

so today i rip off the cellophane and pop in 2012.... grab the bears (despite their slow/shit-ass secondary and their weird idea to have manumauseless be the FB) and take on max hall and the shit-ass cardinals. welp, i find out real quickly that i have no idea where the kick-meter wants me to stop to have proper accuracy, so every kick sails OOB and they get it at the 40. then for some reason my squad sacks hall 3 times i na row, i get the ball..... and i'm jumpy as shit. on 4th and 10 i say fuck it and throw a vert route bomb to knox in one on one coverage and he nabs it for a ~75 yard touchdown. i go to knock in the xtra point and some cardinal dude jumps hte line and blocks the fuck out of my kick.

as the game goes on again i can't figure out where the fuck the kick meter wants me to stop after i tap the button for power, so i completely shank a 24 yard field goal... i also notice that they seem to have gotten rid of the "tuck-n-run" option for the quarterback... meaning in PS2 if you had a quarterback with some mobility, after you hiked the ball on passing play you could hold down X, which would cause the QB to tuck the ball and run like a RB... letting go of the X button would get him back into quarterback mode so you could chuck the ball if need be.

for the life of me, i can't figure out how to do that in this game... i'd reference the instruction manual... but there is none! my brother says tat EA likes to save the planet so they dont print any FOR THE TREES MAN, FOR THE TREES!!!! so i guess i gotta dig through the game to find it? lame.

also what FUCKING KILLS ME is that they seem to have gotten rid of audible line/secondary shifts.... it used to be you could hit square to audible, then another button to signal the line... you could shift them left or right, or hit up and they'd spread out, hit down and they'd compress inwaards..... you could also hit another button for the secondary and press left and right to shift into either man or zone coverage, or hitting up would send them a few steps back, and hitting down would have them run up to the line of scrimmage, which was GREAT for blitzhes or when you wanted to fake blitz and defend short yardage situations for the flanker/TE on short distance downs.

so i'm ROBBED of all of these abilities and i manage to lose to the shit-ass cardinals 10-8. i sacked that queer max hall something like ~8-10 times and managed to get a safety out of it, but i missed like 2-3 gimme FGs and after that had trouble punching the ball in the endzone, so without FGs or the ability to punt for more than 15 yards AND kicking OOB on any and all kickoffs, i managed to lose 10-8 to the shit-ass cardinals.

SOOOO CAN ANYONE HELP ME HERE?!? if anyone who plays the 360 version happened to read this, do you know how to do those line/2ndary shifts, tuck and run as the QB, or where the FG meter wants you to stop the damn thing so you kick with full accuracy? shit was embarassing b4 man... thank god i didn't go online.

still smokin on the go-go scene

# the dis/honorable sir doctor admiral james danger disdain XXXVII, esq.

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oh and btw... who cares about the whole "it's the same game" thing... duh. it's madden. ever since the NFL 2K series fucked off (which was... around ~05-06 i wanna say? prolly right around hte time people say that madden stagnated) they haven't had any competition so they don't have to do shit but slap on some new players/ratings a couple token and toss in a couple'a gameplay tweaks, sprinkle in a few new features in various modes, then finally streamline the network code and it's steak dinner BOOM: people are gonna go and get it.

actually, let's say they radically changed the game/engine and made it feel genuinely different from the last season... then you could see some people like "new madden sucks, i'm going to keep on playing the old one" so i think EA is dually cognizant of that fact and lazy so that's why we get moderately updated/slightly-upgraded versions of the same game engine year in and year out on each individual console... they don't really have to change the engine until they get a new console/generation so that way people are more open to change and they won't risk alienating even ONE mark who's always down to spend $50/year on madden because that's just what you've been doing since 1993.

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You can do all of that in the Madden 12 version as well. You just have to hit the audible button and then use the direction pad.

I read this year's Wii version will use the classic controller, so no crazy Wii controls neccessary.

Its most of the same with Madden this year is what I would like to say but it's not. The camera views suck, the cutscenes are bad and too close most of the time. The AI is either really bad on ALL PRO or either WAY too good on All Madden. Ugh same shit different $60.

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That's what I have been hearing from a lot of people/reviews.

Granted, I haven't purchased a Madden since 2008, but nothing I have read leads me to believe I am missing out on anything.

With the Monopoly Madden has, there's no need for them to ever improve the game. It's still one of the top selling games year after year, so why should they change it? The sheep will keep buying it. Maybe if people stopped shelling out $60/year, they might do something about it.

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I agree with you and Sini, but that doesn't make it a proper business practice. I would be in favor of a new game release every other year and DLC rosters in off-years.

I guess I made the right call on picking up NCAA 12.

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From what I can remember, there haven't exactly been mind-blowing changes to that franchise, either.

You dont need mind blowing advancements. Sports games include advancements in the actual games (2 Rb systems, new rosters, wildcat etc). They are not bound to their own universe like Zelda or Modern Warfare or whatever you nerds are playing these days. After Zelda 1, you better have some enhancements or its the exact same game.


And its 60$ a year, and most people that play madden are big football fans. I mean relative to other things you spend your money on, 60$ for a product you will use for a ridiculous amount of hours is not bad.

I get what you're saying, but I just don't understand the bitching year after year if you are still buying the game. Why not stop buying it if you have a problem with the lack of advancements? I did.

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I agree. Im not bitching. (I get the game for free. Brother in law works at EA)

It seems like the bitching is coming from people trying to convince themselves that it was a good decision to stop buying it.

But yeah, if the roster updates, slight tweaks, and actual football changes arent enough, then dont buy it.

The name Madden really needs to be shelved also. The guy is retired. This game should be called Dierdorf 12.

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Buck 12