As of this posting, the Madden NFL 12 demo has shown up in the Playstation Store and I am downloading it. What are you impressions of the game? Besides the funky rosters of course.

What teams are on the demo?

Bears vs Packers.

4 fumbles in 1st Quarter for me. Anyone else notice alot of fumbles?

Game 1:
Love the Bears intro with Staley the Bear. On the second play of the game, Chris Harris picked off Aaron Rodgers and returned it deep. The slow footed Harris outran Greg Jennings, but uber-Rodgers chased him down from behind. My drive died quickly and it resulted in a BLOCKED FIELD GOAL. So cool they found a way to put that in the game.

The play clock deletes super quick, makes it almost impossible to adjust on defense since the offense has to snap it right away. Run game felt balanced. Passing game felt balanced. Offensive line needs a bit of work. Brad Jones looped from outside the LT, to between the Guard and Center untouched for a Sack. It was a 3 man rush, my LT and LG had nobody but Jones to block. smh

With 2 minutes left in the game, Rodgers picked my defense apart. It resulted in a Mason Crosby Field Goal to go up 9-7 with 40 seconds left. Out of time outs, with 30 seconds to go and I take the field at the 30. Working down the field I stall... it's 4th and 5, Jay Cutler finds Greg Olsen diving out of bounds for the first down and to kill the clock. It's a 50 yard field goal with 4 seconds left. It's up, 95% Power, Dead Center accuracy on the new Kick Meter. And Wide Left. I had overcompensated for kicking from the right hash. Game Packers.

Despite the blocked field goal and the missed game-winner, I love the feel and unpredictability of the new kick meter. Pass rush felt great, Peppers was a beast and Izzy made a play for me. Rodgers was lightning quick though. He sprinted out 15 yards before a single player reacted.

I'm going to put the game on "Slow" speed now since it defaults to Normal. Also, you can put the Madden 10 control scheme for audible in the settings menu. I hate the 1 click controls of using the D-Pad.

And no fumbles on my end Plusch.

Good game for me, 21-14 win. I like it after the first impression. Camera seemed weird at first but got used to it. Presentation looks good w/ the intro and different angles. Defenses are much better. Running inside was tough but the run game was really open on the outside, I'd credit that to great improved run blocking that I saw.

Funny you mention "uber-Rodgers" cus the same thing happened for me. Harris gets an INT at the Bear goalline and gets tackled by Rodgers at the Packer 1... just for Cutler to throw an INT to AJ Hawk next play. Weird stretch of plays there.

Its definitely got me excited for Aug 30th and getting the action going in online franchise.

AJ Hawk is a beast in this demo. Did he up his speed at all??? Jeez he's everywhere.

Anyone playing on different settings? I'm thinking Slow speed is the great. Gonna drop it down to Very Slow too to see how it feels.

Hands down, the best Madden I've ever played. I got whooped by All-Madden, 21-0. So fun. It just feels right.

Very slow might be my favorite speed. It does make the game a bit easier to read. But I'm thinking that with online lag, it's be more playable.

Has anyone tried the "Surprise Onside Kick" in the demo? I completely forgot how to even do it. A leagueManager poster said that you start the meter with 'X' and use 'O' on both power and accuracy.

Early observations are that it works about 1 in 3 times, which is high in my opinion. Also, it appears that your power and accuracy do not affect the surprise onside kick at all.

WR shading and individual bumping/playing loose on receivers is back. So thats nice.

I like the demo when you're playing another person. Playing the AI is not. Also, the way the game animates and moves just looks weird to me. The QB's move around way too fast in the pocket.

Played a little over a half with each team, losing both times. This is on the base settings, no changes, on all pro.

With the Pack:

Deep passing game was wide open all day, Greg Jennings cannot be stopped. Running game stinks, I believe I had 1 carry for over 5 yards, most were in the 1 to 2 yard range. Did not try the outside run, the one 5 yarder was a power O. HB screen game is totally busted, I think I ran that play 6 times and didnt complete any of them. Peppers dominated my offense, which feels about right, at least it wasn't some scrub. Had an OK time on D, but at least kept the game close, getting a few red zone stops. Hester broke one tackle and took it to the house, that was a majority of the damage. Game came down to one lost fumble by Jennings.

With the Bears:

Again, the run game is abysmal, something I hate because I'm an old school football guy, fuck passing, I wanna run. Passing game was much harder for the Bears with those great Packer corners. I did have guys get open downfield, but Cutlers release takes to long and got hit, fumbled twice. Intermediate to deep middle passes still seem like money, with the centermost reciever, usually the TE, coming open. Got nothing done on D besides a red zone stop after a 66 yard completion to Jones. You cannot play man with the Bears, that secondary stinks. Was so so stopping the run, Peppers who dominated me, didn't even seem like he was on the field for this game, maybe its just how I run my D, cuz I've rarely ever had great DE play in any madden.

I love the new kick meter, seems like now a kickers rating outside of Kick Power will matter now.

I feel sorry for EDJ, this Bear team stinks, and only got worse in free agency. I would love to see run blocking more effective, and I only saw one broken tackle in this game, tackling in the NFL isnt exactly great anymore, and less hitting in practice now will only make that trend continue. All and all I do like the demo, but I hate playing CPU, especially when I cant Supersim D and get the game over with.

Am I the only one to have success running the ball? I did pretty good w/ Grant on the outsides and between the tackles was alright which is expected vs Peppers, Urlacher, etc.

One thing I really didnt like was Knox & Hester running streaks 90% of the time. In my last game it was 21-14 me w/ 1 min to go and Bears have the ball at the 35. They ran 4 straight streaks to Knox for incompletions.

King_Hippo72 wrote:You cannot play man with the Bears, that secondary stinks.

No shit. They're not supposed to be able to play man. Lovie's Defense is a Cover 2 Zone scheme. All my corners are zone specialists. Safety Chris Harris is a ballhawk though, he's got sticky hands. And Major Wright is a thumper just waiting to jar the ball loose. It took me 3 years to get man coverage corners on my team in Madden 11. I expect much of the same this year.

I refuse to play as the Pack, so I can't comment on their team, but I've had decent success mixing up runs. The outside sweeps appeared open, but the Packers OLB's would make some ridiculous play on the block and get to the ball. Probably just a product of my awful blocking.

I was really pleasantly surprised with the demo. I downloaded it tonight and played a few games and I think the gameplay really improved from last year's game. I thought everything ran a lot smoother and the player movements and angles were more realistic.

I used the Packers and was able to run the ball pretty well when I actually ran (I went Josh McDaniel style and chucked it nearly every play). Last year the players magneted too easily and it seemed like almost every run was a clusterfuck at the line of scrimmage. I can't wait to see what my boy Charles is gonna do once we get underway

Two things I liked the most though with my initial reaction.

1) Deep passing. Last year I got bored because the deep ball never seemed worth the risk. It was hard to get deep completions and the checkdowns and short routes always seemed wide open to me. My online games would end up a retarded battle of who hit their checkdowns better and who had the running back that was going to break a tackle on a short pass and take it to the house. I feel like it's easier to see the field and see guys coming out of their breaks. There were some great catch animations near the sidelines too. I threw a deep out route in between the flat zone and the safety in a Cover 2 and Jennings went towards the sideline one handed and landed on his left foot and drug his right toe while being hit out of bounds. It was cooler than it sounds but the way his body twisted looked really realistic to me and I even had to replay it to check it out again.

2) Defensive disguises. By this I mean that last year it was so easy for me to tell what defense the computer was running .1 seconds after snapping the ball. On the demo I felt like in zones especially, linebackers and corners playing the flat would stick with their guy an extra second and then drop into their zone (like in real life). The flat guys especially played a little deeper instead of immediately sprinting to their flat coverage which was more realistic and made it harder to figure out the defense right off the snap. They kept the receivers in front of them and came up for the tackle instead of letting a guy run right behind them and be wide open.

Also I'll add that unshockingly the Bears offensive line was pathetic. I sacked Cutler 7 times, 4 by Ryan Pickett, and I hardly even sent more than 4 or 5 guys. I agree about the kicking game too. The new meter will make accuracy actually matter for once which is great.

-Anyone else still hate that the turbo button is gone? I still use it out of habit even though I know it doesn't make my guy faster. Just something I grew used to over the years I guess.

Is gameflow still a part of Madden12? Its not a huge deal, but I just wondering if I would still have to press an extra button to exit out of gameflow before every play since I never used it in Madden11.

Steel Pitt wrote:Is gameflow still a part of Madden12? Its not a huge deal, but I just wondering if I would still have to press an extra button to exit out of gameflow before every play since I never used it in Madden11.

It is, and I don't plan to force it on you guys. I think I used it more than anyone in ourleague, and it really allowed me to stay balanced and call plays I would normally skip over. But it was so loathed by everyone, I'll set the Franchise to "Conventional" play-calling.

Awesome good to know. I was one of the guys who did NOT like the gameflow option. It just didn't fit my play style in anyway. I like calling my own plays. Even on 4th downs when they feed you maddens chosen plays. I back out so I can choose the punt return formation that suits me best. More times than not I'd find "Gameflow" choosing plays that would just annoy me and put me in silly situations.

I find that "Conventional" play-calling will save time and allow me to call plays that I think best suit the situation whether it be 3rd and 1 or 3rd and very long(due to penalties, being sacked, etc). So, thank you EDJ for switching the setting for this year's madden.

Alot of times out of sheer laziness I'll just use ask Madden, usually one of 3 plays will be something I like.

Lol sheer laziness... Hippo, you're a freak!(Benchwarmers)

lol yeah the demo is good i have played it a few times way better than 11 and I am happy and excited to be apart of this league now you guys seem like a REAL SIM league and i love that

Did everybody hate gameflow that much? I didn't use it for defense, but I let it pick my offensive plays. I thought it provided good balance, and the only time it gave me bad plays was on third downs when it suggested runs or play-actions.

The demo seems to have corrected the issues I had with gameflow last year. Now it gives you three gameflow plays, the main suggestion, a run, and a pass. Even though I am probably in the minority, maybe we should open up the play-calling setting to discussion.

YtBalla wrote:Did everybody hate gameflow that much? I didn't use it for defense, but I let it pick my offensive plays. I thought it provided good balance, and the only time it gave me bad plays was on third downs when it suggested runs or play-actions.

The demo seems to have corrected the issues I had with gameflow last year. Now it gives you three gameflow plays, the main suggestion, a run, and a pass. Even though I am probably in the minority, maybe we should open up the play-calling setting to discussion.

Yeah, when I asked about gameflow it wasn't to suggest that we should eliminate it as an option. I was just curious as to whether it was in the game. I don't plan on using it but I know some did. As long as you can still option out of gameflow before each play then it doesn't bother me.

Could be wrong, but I think last year when you set it to conventional you could still access gameflow if you wanted.

I tried it some last year but shelved it pretty quick. I may give it another shot. It's just such a pain to set up with the plays you want...

Just played the demo. I enjoyed playing at slow more then very slow. I thought the graphics and "few" changes they made were for the better.

Mike

To add to the last point I think the gameflow play selection was much better then in Madden 11

illmatic216 wrote:-Anyone else still hate that the turbo button is gone? I still use it out of habit even though I know it doesn't make my guy faster. Just something I grew used to over the years I guess.

I personally don't miss it at all. It really changed the game making it automatic and made the inside running game more of an option, and it kept players from spamming sweeps/stretches because they would just hit turbo immediately and try to get outside instead of reading blocks.

That said, are people having issues with the auto-strafe keeping players from making plays? I had a couple instances where my Safety would start strafing and I couldn't make a tackle and the receiver would blow by me. NCAA seems to do this a bit too.