Michigan Players
I have a rule about players from Michigan that are then drafted by the Browns. My rule is clean slate. As a fan, I do my best to forgive and forget. Now, a Michigan player who is drafted elsewhere...screw 'em. I hope Tom Brady gets a boil on his ass.
Braylon Edwards, on the other hand, made his NFL debut today in a preseason game against the Lions and caught the game wimner on a fade pass/jump ball from Charlie Frye with :50 to play. Cheering for Edwards will be easy if he keeps doing that.
Even more further review…..
Well after reading the posts here, I thought to myself, maybe I was too harsh on NCAA and maybe Madden is that bad. So I went back and played some NCAA. There is no doubt in my mind that Madden is the better game than NCAA. That being said, it's like on a scale of 1 to 10, 5 is better than 4. I'm not a fan of either, but if there was a gun to my head, I'd pick Madden.
So far my Madden franchise is going along well, mind you I'm not doing the GM like stuff and instead just playing the game out. Of course as the Patriots, it was a little weird seeing #2 at QB for no apparent reason, so I did sub Flutie out for #12. This was a regular season game.
I really enjoy running the ball in Madden. I am comfortable with punt returns and kick offs as well. I seem to see the holes and really do well. I've seen the CPU run back punts myself. Not for TD's but they've broken off some runs.
I know you're going to say that I'm a graphics whore, but the graphics in Madden border on unacceptable when you see ESPN NFL2K5. They are atrocious. The sound is horrid, especially the play by play. They can show Madden on NFL Network all they want, it still sounds like the same commentary from 1995.
I'm so pissed off about Madden online play, don't even get me started. How some idiot at EA couldn't support league functionality is beyond me. They probably said that well no one used it with premium pass last year, to which I say, you had to provide a credit card 1 1/2 months after release to get the functionality.
Electronic Arts does not seem to get online functionality. Regardless of platform they do a half-assed job of supporting it. Yes, they have a nice website and their contests are a neat idea but how do you run sports games that can't support league play?
I'll be the first to admit, these leagues almost never work -- people say they'll sign up and never show up again. Our blog league last year was the closest thing we got to a 'real' fun league, and that was only after 5 dropped teams. But I still really enjoyed it, even though I sucked.
Back in my Operation Sports days, we did a league with High Heat Basball 2001 (or maybe it was 2000). Scott Bedard programmed a league page so we could cut and paste our boxscores (remember the game created all box scores as a .txt file). You could upload the file and the score and voila. His DB would let you sort all that stuff. It was awesome.
So to recap, EA can't do something that some guy programmed for PC 5 years ago. Way to go, EA. And people wonder why I'm mad about this?
After all that, that's why I'm so excitied and optimistic about Blitz The League. I know it's not a true sim, but if it has the online gameplay and the rated M material, I will be all over this game. (BTW, Why does Wal-Mart carry M rated games but not AO? I just received Darkwatch for review, that game is a brutal M, but that's ok at Wal-mart? What the hell?)
Of course, if the game blows (Blitz), I will be all over it too. The October release seems like an unusual time for the game. Maybe they want Madden to die or those people that bought Madden to have money for one game. I hope that's the case. I think a lot of people are going to say, they bought one football game and that's it. We'll see....
Browns fall to 5-5
Back to back losses to Pitt and Miami have put me behind the playoff 8-Ball. I'm really enjoying the game right now. I'm still trying to find the right CPU QB balance but there's enough variety to make me happy, and the bullshit meter right now is pretty low.
But there be bullshit.
The special teams play, particularly the return game, is just flat out broken. 10 games into the season and the CPU has yet to return a kick past the 25 and has returned MAYBE 3 punts all season long, the rest are all fair catches. The blocking on kickoffs and punts just sucks, plain and simple.
Still, I may actually play multiple seasons in Madden after I finish the review which has happened...well...never.
As I said earlier I have Madden 06 PC and finally got the activation code so I'll give it a spin over the weekend.
I have also been assigned to review the indie game Fate for GameSpy, which I really can't wait to check out.
After Further Review
Because of many of your emails and comments, and the fact that you enjoy finding out about the Japanese Dung Beetle blog, we are bringing back the comments.
However, any of us can remove comments we feel are inappropriate and we will. We have also found a way to track IP addresses if we find something offensive or to report spam (yay!). So that's always good. Comment away!
Sweaty Palms
After a very unfun Texans game, the Browns took on the Titans this afternoon.
In an attempt to try to get the CPU to pass more effectively, I lowered human AWR to 0 and also gave the CPU a couple bumps in catching. I'm not sure the cause, but McNair was 13/17 146 yds 3TD 0INT. The man was on. I think I made the run slider for Tenn a bit too great as they ran the ball in a lot of what I thought were obvious passing downs. Still, at one point McNair was 13/15. They also ran the ball well as Brown had 33 carries for 175 yards, but one run was for 54 so other than that, we did ok on D.
It was the end of the game that was pretty wild. Down 24-17 with 5 mins to go, I started to drive a bit only to get picked off by going to the curl route well once too often. Dilfer was looking like ass, again.
The Titans march down and score making it 31-17 with about 3 mins to play. Not good. Dilfer goes to the air, and every game prior to this when I had to start passing with ol Trent things went from bad to worse. Today though Dilfer caught fire late, throwing 6 straight completions to get the ball in scoring range. I had to really thread the needle on a few passes, and for Dilfer to do that is rare. 1st abd goal at the 8 and Suggs scores on a draw play. 31-24 with 1:47 to play.
I kick deep and hope to stop them.
Three straight runs and three straight stuffs and three straight time outs later, I get the ball back with about 1:35 to play and no time outs on my own 35. Dilfer picks up where he left off, looking like Joe Montana. Everything is cliking but time is becoming a major factor. A 25 yard post to Edwards gets the ball to the Titans 19 yard line with 17 ticks left.
5 wide, no backs, I'm looking for Antonio Bryant who has played his ass off today but I see the free DB is going over to 2x team him leaving slot man Andre Davis 1-1 with a SS. A flag route in the back of the end zone was laid right on the money and the Browns tie the game!
The refs want to look at the call via replay.
Oh no...
It looks like Davis' foot hits the chalk. If I'm the ref, that's not a catch. If I am playing against a buddy on the same machine, I freak out if this isn't overturned. 
Amazingly, they do not overturn it and the crowd goes nuts (well, as nuts as a crowd in Madden can, I guess). We're going to OT.
Browns win the toss, and Lee Suggs breaks off a 68 yard counter play over a totally demoralized Titans defense to set up the chip shot game winner.
34-31 Browns in OT.
5-3 and tied for 1st, winning games by the skin of my teeth.
Three great games out of 4 ain't bad..
Return of the Bullshit Game
Asking for three good games in a row...yeah I know. That's asking a lot. This morning I lost to the Texans 28-16, which on its face is a very plausible outcome. My defense is depleted after losing Boulware and FS Brian Russell and replacing them with mid 70s rated players. Mid 70s rated players suck in Madden. If you're elite players are 90+ and your good players are high 80s and your average players are low 80s/high 70s then your average to below average are the guys in the 70s. 60 rated players should get cut ASAP.
Anyway this is no longer the defense I had against the Ravens and Lions.
But the game reverted back to the old All Pro level Madden today. Davis for the Texans rushed just fine, about 87 yards on 23 carries. Dilfer (me) was forced to throw a lot more than I wanted to and was something like 22/48 for 302 1 TD and 3 INTs. Again, very believable. But golden boy David Carr was, get this, 4/19 for 176 yards 2TD and 3INTs. For those scoring at home that's a 21% completion rate against what is now a very below average defense. That's also 44 yards per completion. Carr looked deep all game long, even with the conservative slider adjustments. The only thing I didn't do was move that run slider. I left it at 55% run, and Carr just chucked the ball deep damn near every time he threw it. Not quite sure what to make of that.
In my previous 2 games Boller was in the 60% range and Harrington started out 8/9 but then fell off to complete around 52% or so. Carr was a mess, but when he DID complete a pass, it was a bomb that killed me. It was a very frustating game because not only was Carr 4/19--but that same 4/19 QB beat me.
The beat goes on against the Titans. Hopefully McNair will complete 50%.
Something I just noticed after watching Major League for the 204th time
Major League (the original from 1989) is one of my favorite baseball movies. Just a tad above Mr. 3000, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, I know most of the dialogue by heart at this point. Fuck you jobo, bring the shit to me, etc, all well known lines.
While I did know that Charlie Sheen and Tom Berenger and Corbin Bernsen were all in the movie, I never realized who played Pedro. I always thought it was one of 'those guys' that just had the one role in him.
Was I ever wrong.
While watching the credits roll tonight on HBO Comedy or whatever, I saw the name for the actor that plays Pedro.....Dennis Haysbert. Yes, that is the same man who plays "President Palmer" on 24 and does those Allstate comercials. I had no clue. Now I do.
In other baseball news, I went to my first AA game on Wednesday. The Portland Sea Dogs lost to the Mets, 4-0. It was an awful game for the Sea Dogs, but my seats were awesome and everyone had a fun day at the park. The game ended in about 2:15, which was amazingly fast....
Back to Major League, the Orioles are now 60-60 and 10 games out of first place. In Major League, the Indians were 60-61 and 9 games out of 1st place. In Major League, they went 32-9 in their last 41 in order to catch the Yankees. So, maybe the O's can pull that off too. 
.
We can all dream right..now I go to sleep with that "woke up one day..." song in my head. I head that song. And Queequeg's coffin.
Back to Back Classics + Sliders
Well, that was another classic game and I'm really, really having a lot of fun with Madden now.
Browns 16
Lions 13
Dawson nails a last second 38 yd FG to win it. Has anyone seen the last second game winning FG heart beat thing? Is this new? Maybe I just haven't had a last second kick like that before but it was very different than your average FG attempt..
Harrington started out 8/9 but finished 12/24 and ol' Dilfer put in his standard 13/25 1 INT performance, missing a WIDE FRIGGIN OPEN Braylon Edwards in the end zone. Kevin Jones had 26 carries for 154 yards, but my defense was a bend but don't break group tonight in the rain. It rained for the first half but was sunny the 2nd, which I thought was cool but the rain stayed on the field as I splashed my way through the 2nd half.
Thr Browns move to 4-2! I have won some nail biters, though. In truth the Lions had me, but Hanson shanked a 41 yarder late in the 4th and twice had 1st and goal and kicked FGs. I'll take it though. I did lose OLB Peter Boulware for the season, though, which is going to hurt. I fudged and signed him in the preseason because well, I wanted to. So much for that plan.
Here's my franchise set up:
All 32 teams set to human controlled. I then go into every coach profile and set CPU assist to ON for everything but the Draft. The draft AI is ass, so I'll do that manually. I love the draft so this is totally fine with me. I also check each week if someone (on a CPU team) has a season ending injury, if so, I slap em on the IR because the AI won't do it.
This is important. Really important. Before each game I go into the coach profile of the team I am about to play and change the run/pass ratio and the conservative/aggressive bar. I make it about 70 to 80% conservative so that the CPU doesnt chuck the ball 50 yards downfield all the time. This makes for a very good short to medium CPU pass game, which I love. The CPU WILL go deep, but not so much that it'll complete 35% of its passes as result. I also usually slide the run ratio to about 65%. I did this after testing out the Browns/Colts matchup about 5 times and each time Edge got about 10 carries. This fixes that.
12 Minutes
Accel Clock ON
SUBS: 85% out/90% in
Defense Pass Assist OFF (important)
All Pro Lvl
Sliders:
Human Off:
QB Acc: 7
Pass Bl: 8
Catch: 10
Running: 10
Run Bl: 9
Human Def:
AWR: 2
KND: 0
INT: 2
Break Bl: 18
Tackle: 6
Human ST:
FGA: 8
Punt Length: 8
Punt Acc: 8
All others 10
CPU Off:
QB Acc: 20
Pass Bl: 7
Catch: 10
Running: 10
Run Bl: 11
CPU Def:
AWR: 11
KND: 0
INT: 3
Break Bl: 11
Tackle: 5
CPU ST:
FGA: 8
Punt Acc: 9
All others 10
A few notes. When passing, I ALWAYS use Precision Passing by using that right analog stick. For every single pass. This seesm to do two things.
1) I rarely see the Matrix style DB jumps that result in pass break ups. Maybe 2 per game. If you lead that receiver, this is no longer an issue.
2) It also makes passing a bit tougher, esp. on long routes. When I missed Edwards in the end zone? It was on a post/flag and I used the right stick to lead him but overthrew him by 5 yards. If you just press the pass button QB Accuracy is too high AND you bring back those dumb ass DB jumps.
Anyway, I hope these provide some good results for you guys because I'm really having the most fun I have ever had with Madden right now, poor kick return game and all.
More Blitz
Just an FYI that I will be interviewing the lead designer for Blitz the League in the coming days for Gameshark. Have a question you'd like me to ask? Send it here.
Holy Cow Best Madden game EVER
I have been playing Madden since the start of the next-gen console craze. Yep, that's right, I never played a Madden football game prior to the PS2. OK..that was a lie. I had played some of the Madden PSX games over at a buddy's house back in college and thought the game was so terrible I never had ANY desire to buy it and play it on my own. This was back when there really was a PC/Console war going on.
PC people, for the most part, pointed to Front Page Sports Football as the essential football game while PSX gamers pointed to Madden (and later Gameday for a year or two). I never had a need for Madden in the 1990s because it was nowhewre near the kind of football agme I wanted to play and I had FPS, which I still contend was much the better game until the last two versions.
Anyway enough history. I've been playing this generation of Madden games for six vesions now. That's the point. Today I played, by far, the best game of Madden I have ever played against the CPU.
I beat the Ravens 19-15. It was one of those rare times when I play a game and sit back when it's over and think, "Wow, that was just a helluva lot of fun." The main reason was that this particular game had zero "bullshit" moments.
That's really what I ask out of my sports games -- if they can limit the moments where I say to myself, "That is total bullshit" then I'm usually a happy gamer. It's why NCAA frustrates me and why I hated Madden back in the PSX days. Too much bullshit.
The game I played tonight against the Ravens (as Cleveland) is the kind of game I could see actually happening. Dilfer was 15/24 171 yds and 2 INTs. Droughns and Suggs combined for about 105 yards. Boller was 15/22 208 with a TD and a last second INT that sealed a win for me. The Ravens were w/o Jamal Lewis and still managed around 90 yards rushing.
I took the lead with a 1:00 left and the Ravens marched down the field to my 20 yard line and with 5 ticks left Boller was picked. If a game makes my palms sweat...I consider that a job well done.
I'll post the sliders I am using when I get the chance (Ashley has the TV for now..)
What I’d Do With Madden’s Passing Cone
It’s been fairly crazy busy this past week for me so I haven’t set aside much time to post. I am however trying to get in at least a quick game of Madden each night before returning it to Blockbuster (it’s already five days overdue). We’re out of town this weekend for yet another wedding, so I’ll probably re-rent it (bia coupon) next week or the week after.
I still really don’t know what to make of this game. There’s no doubt in my mind it’s a better brand of football than NCAA. Then again, Front Page Sports played more competent football than either of these games and that was more than ten years ago, so I’m not sure how impressive that is. I’m just not sure of the fun factor yet. I do have fun with NCAA. I’m still on the fence with Madden.
Part of it is that I’m really fighting with this passing cone thing. I like it. I think it’s an important addition to the gameplay, but I find the implementation frustrating. The R stick is useless if you have a QB with low awareness (the cone is just too small to target a moving receiver) and I cannot get the hang of checking down to an open receiver, pulling the R trigger, selecting the receiver and then passing the ball, all while trying to keep one eye on the pass rush. Sometimes it works out, a lot of the time one of the following occurs:
- I get sacked while trying to make the switch.
- I don’t get the trigger down before pushing the receiver’s button and throw a horrid pass.
- I don’t let go of the trigger before I press the receiver button to actually make the pass (and by the time I get it right, I’m getting sacked or just hitting the wrong button).
- While fighting with the buttons the receiver is no longer open.
That’s frustrating in that it feels like I’m fighting against the game instead of the defense. My problem is I can’t make my fingers dance along that controller as fast as my brain wants them to. I’ll use the trigger to select the B wide receiver and for reasons that are beyond me, I’ll find my thumb slamming down on the X button. And if it’s a receiver tied to the black or white buttons you can forget about it. I’ll hit black when I want white. White when I want black. And sometimes I’ll just hit the X button again for reasons passing understanding. I’ve probably thrown ten interceptions purely because I keep fighting with the controller. Some of that’s just old man hands and poor reflexes, true, but some of its game design.
A lot of it would be helped if EA really let you customize your controller buttons instead of selecting between three or four schemes that are very nearly identical. Actually a couple of them are, they just changed the button order they’re listed in on the screen. (That is incredibly lame.) But mostly I think the passing cone control scheme just needs to be better. Why not use the various buttons to let you select your target receiver and then use a single trigger and stick to throw/guide the pass to said receiver? To me at least, it’s far simpler to press a button and trigger successively than to have to hold the trigger and press the button, let go of the trigger and then press the same button again. It’s like using MS Word’s edit menu to paste text into a document instead of just hitting Ctrl+V. Like I implied above, you want to be battling your opponent and not the controller.
Anyway, this isn’t meant as a scathing attack on Madden. It does a lot of stuff right and, as far as I’m concerned, the cone is a fantastic idea. I just think they need to improve on its control scheme. Unfortunately, past experience tells me not to expect EA to change the mode at all. They’ll be too busy next year adding voice support so you can record your own radio interviews in Superstar mode and podcast them to all your buddies to worry about actual gameplay I’m sure. (Not that I’m bitter about the flat out bust that is Superstar mode or anything.)
Drive by UPS
I have had the same UPS guy for about 5 years. I know most people don't really get to know their UPS guy, but when you have games delivered to you from publishers they usually arrive via UPS or Fedex. I don't even sign for the stuff anymore. He stops by, hands me the package, we talk about the Browns, and we go our merry ways. I even gave him a $20 Best Buy Gift card for Christmas last year.
He can be a bit loopy at times though.
This morning, I was bringing in our big green trash bin and grabbing the paper and the UPS truck goes zipping down the street -- he was hauling ass in that big brown truck. Then I hear the truck stop, he spins the truck around and drives right past the house, slowing down just a touch and throwing a thin package at my frisbee style.
"Bill I'm running late, here!"
Now I'm about half awake, having been up for about 5 minutes and I'm compelled to leap up to try to dog snatch this UPS envelope. After playing 6 full court games of basketball last night, with my ankles a tad sore, I fail miserbly. The package goes wizzing over my head, and skids down the driveway. If this was any other UPS guy, I'm calling the home office. But like I said, I know the guy, so I just look at the speeding truck, having a flashback from the Chevy Chase movie Funny Farm and his insane mailman.
I'm very much awake now, though. I limp over to the package to see it's from GameSpy.
"Madden 06 for the PC. Cool."
Happy Wednesday
OMG...did you see all the news about viruses? CNN and ABC were promoting the article like it was breaking news -- it was breaking in the way that they still use Windows 2000 and they hadn't updated their PCs. Maybe the news item should be 'we're stupid and don't update our systems'.
Glad I took this week off from the real job, as I can watch the Orioles games that are late. Going to a AA baseball game today, first one with my kids, so that should be interesting...
Haven't really played many games though -- aside from NFL Street 2 for Xbox. You see at least that game is totally over the top and it's supposed to be .
Quick Update
Well, hell week continues as we take Ashley back to the doctor. She's had a very rough cough for going on 3 weeks now. We took her to the doctor last week and he gave her some pink syrupy medicine called Amoxocillan. It may as well have been pink tap water. So we called again today as Ashley had another 3AM coughing fit (she has used up all the pink stuff) so they said to being her back in today at 2PM. I really have no idea what is wrong at this point, but hopefully they'll give her some more aggressive medicine this time to knock this congestion out of her.
I am very tired.
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