Tuner Priorities

Well True Believers, we've compiled our list of Madden Gameplay Issues in dire need of tuning. While Madden is a solid product this year, imbalances in gameplay have already shown the ability to negatively imbalance the game. If not addressed, these issues have the potential to absolutely ruin the gameplay experience in Madden 12. Make no mistake, Madden will succeed or fail this year based on the amount of post-release support Tiburon uses to address flaws in the product. Contemporary games show their mettle by addressing exploits in a timely manner, and games that don't do this stay on the shelf the following year. Here's our list:



Toss Plays - A total head-scratcher here. In Madden, The Toss is the most dominant run play in the game unless you adapt your entire defense to counter it. Puzzling, because when you watch the NFL its a play you see successful at times, but it isn't nearly as dominating as it is in Madden. It's only a shade of its Madden-self in reality. Savvy players will threaten the toss early/get defenses to adjust and then expose the defense with inside runs and quick passes to the players left uncovered by blitzers. This needs addressing ASAP.

QB Sneak - If you're not in goal-line this is a play that can even gain 4-5 yards a pop with Eli Manning, no less. Where are the high rate of QB fumbles when DTs and LBs tee off on them in the mass of bodies that comes from the QB Sneak? Why aren't our DTs coming off blocks to counter this? We were  under the impression that it was hard to run inside the teeth of a defense. Offensive players can leap the pile, why can't defenders? It's funny, but looking at this QB Sneak we sure don't see a running lane to gain 4 or 5 yards. (it looks like he barely got a yard to us) This and the FB Dive need to be tuned with a much lower percentage of success. Let's do away with "money plays" of all kinds, because they don't exist in reality.

Interceptions - Much too high. We understand wanting to make defenses better, but we'd like it to be done realistically. Wanna impress us? Give us more off-target passes, pass deflections, bat-downs at the line of scrimmage, pass break-ups and dislodges from big hits and defenses that have a clue how to stop the pitch. Not an interception setting where the leading guy in our online franchise had 22 INTs (yes, that's 8 more than the NFL record) that's tacky and makes for a sloppy game. NFL DBs dream about having the great hands of their Madden counterparts.

4th Down Percentages -We touched on this in our Interview with an ex-Tiburon developer, but we have to reiterate it as much as possible. FOURTH DOWN PERCENTAGES ARE TOO HIGH. How can the same people that understood that the success rate of the Surprise Onside Kick could ruin gameplay if it was too high, not get that the too-high 4th down conversion rate is hurting Madden. There's one reason and one reason alone why people insist on going for it in situations where it would normally not take place: They have success. The NFL 4th Down conversion rate isn't even 40%. So why does Madden reward non-football behavior with foolishness like tipped passes being caught and other elements that seem to help offenses? It's common knowledge that it motivates defenders when teams disrespect them and go for it on 4th down frivolously, we need to see a much lower conversion rate with elements like batted passes at the line of scrimmage, deflections, dislodges from big hits, false starts and even holding calls to change people's behavior when it comes to going for it on 4th down.

User Control - While we understand the ability to make the game more user-friendly, its been dramatically overdone in Madden 12. To the point where players can circumvent drawing up gameplans and defenders by simply throwing the ball up to a receiver, taking control and simply out-jumping or bumping off the CPU defender. This is ludicrous.Where are the offensive pass interference calls when user-controlled WRs purposely knock our defenders off their path to gain an advantage? The lack of pass breakups from big hits and dislodges really stands out and hurts gameplay here. Like we've stated many times before, there isn't a downside to throwing into coverage. If the pass isn't intercepted or deflected--its a catch. Its just as bad on defense, where we now see all manner of gimmick defenses that are successful because user control allows us to negate blocking and burst a LB/DE through the line or click on the defender closest to the ball and intercept/deflect the ball regardless of the skill level of the player and because the speed burst is NOW on defense. We're all for user-friendly, but the current settings have LBs covering WRs effectively and other foolishness. This needs to be addressed. Doubt how big an issue this is? Here are a series of videos taken from an online game that illustrate how bad things are. As long as we lack defender jumping animations, deflections and dislodges, gameplay will continue to reward the "throw it up and user catch" offense.

DE Pressure - Its come to our attention through many of the hardcore posters on Operation Sports that DEs and pass rushing LBs with high finesse ratings rather than power rushing moves seem to totally lack getting consistent pressure on QBs. The sooner this can be fixed the better. We'd like our players to play as closely to  their real selves as possible.

PR Blocking - The blocking here is spotty and could be better. While not as high priority as some of the other gameplay issues, this could be helped with a minor adjustment.

Defensive Integrity - This is another problem with not having Man Lock available. But more importantly, why don't we have the ability to have our defense stay in its base formation without the CBs drawing up to cover the TE when there's not WR on their side in zone? Instead, we have a system where even in zone they cover up the TE and put themselves in a perfect position to be blocked out of a running play. Why don't we have a choice here? And what genius coded the defense so that even when we're in Man our second corner doesn't follow his assigned WR when we're defending a TWINS set? Instead the WR gets matched up on a LB, it's a good thing that's not a mismatch or anything (rolls eyes) Another one of the reasons the pitch is over-effective is because we don't have the option to have corner on the receiver-less side stay wide. He'd be the guy with a direct path to a HB trying to get wide on a pitch.

FGs/XPs - Its come to our attention that unscrupulous players now have a method that allows them to block every XP and FG that are attempted. While we certainly supported seeing them blocked from time to time, this isn't something that should happen at will; instead it just take the right set of circumstances. This needs to be rectified so that the kicking game isn't totally neutralized.

Well, that's our list. If Tuner Sets are all their cracked up to be with the ability to circumvent patching and fixing issues more quickly, these will be non-issues shortly. If they're overrated, very soon, we'll know that too. Tiburon, your clock starts now.