Madden 15 is out August 26th!

[Toe]

Playing as the Browns on All-Pro, and Charlie fucking Whitehurst just threw for 294 yards while completing 87% of his passes. Yet, somehow, with only 165 passing yards, Johnny Manziel led my Browns to a 17-10 victory and to a 4-0 start to the season!

With the new game prep mechanic, I've already got Johnny to 85 overall.

[DFF]

I've had three games so far in free play/exhibition/whatever it's called on All Pro. As the Lions, lost narrowly to the Vikings 13-10. As the Packers, I then beat the Browns 28-7. Finally, as the Jaguars, I beat the Raiders 20-14 in double overtime, with Janikowski missing a 34 yard FG that would have won it for them in OT1 - it flew wide because of high wind!

Anyone else notice that even medium level wind really screws with punts? I've seen the CPU already have one literally only go about 15 yards (without being tipped etc).

Also, is it me, or is the run game significantly harder this year?

[Meacon Keaton]

Running seems fine to me.

And I don't think I've seen a computer punt go shorter than 60 yards.

[Hugar Twriker Eats Spam]

The secret I learned as far as the running game is not to hold down the sprint at the snap but instead hold down L2/LT so that you have more control to adjust to the hole and then sprint when busting through the hole.

[Meacon Keaton]

Yeah, you're suppose to sprint through the hole, not to it. So don't sprint until you see the hole in the line that you want. Other than that, just follow your blocks.

[borman]

I won my first exhibition game last night, playing as the Packers and beating the Vikings 27-0 on All-Pro. Defense seemed a little on the easy side, but that may have just been because Matt Cassell was the opposing QB. Peterson only ran for 20-something yards on 14ish carries, so that stat kinda worries me.

[Dan]

I won an online MUT game! The lag from previous gen for us Euro's seems to have almost gone which is wonderful.

Was such a close game, he had Manziel at QB and would run with him on every second down until I injured the fucker and put him out for a quarter. Ended up taking it 15-14 after going all in on a 2pt conversion then making the stop.

[Cole]

I won my first exhibition game last night, playing as the Packers and beating the Vikings 27-0 on All-Pro. Defense seemed a little on the easy side, but that may have just been because Matt Cassell was the opposing QB. Peterson only ran for 20-something yards on 14ish carries, so that stat kinda worries me.

All-Pro is way too easy, and on All-Madden you would have lost 27-0 or worse. The game is always broken with their default sliders out of the box. Sad.

[alldaws1]

I had a computer opponent punt for about 15 yards the other day too. If there isn't a strong wind though they seem to go for 60+ yards every time.

As for the running game, I've been struggling but I've been trying to get out of the habit of sprinting from the off like mentioned above, probably doesn't help I'm using a backup running back at the moment too. Running defense seems a bit too easy on the default sliders (all-pro), my opponents are probably getting 20-30 ypg with about a 3 ypc average.

I do love the new kicking system though, makes it interesting rather than generally being automatic like it was.

[The Buscher]

One of the things they claimed to have fixed was the ratings discrepancies. The ratings you see on the roster page and on the depth chart are totally different than the ratings you get when you enter the depth chart while in an actual game. EA said that they fixed it so the ratings matched up and that's clearly not the case at all.

Makes scouting, signing guys based on scheme fit, etc. all seem a bit pointless when you don't know how good they really are until they get in a game anyway.

[Toe]

They change based on confidence too, so watch for that.

I got the Browns into the playoffs, but we lost in the first round. Still, pretty pumped.

In the off season, we had a decent draft but didn't get anyone who could help immediately. Got a MLB named Scruggs who has Superstar development though, so he could become good very fast.

Lost a few guys to free agency but no one important. Biggest move was trading Ben Tate away to free up space. I just never liked using him.

In free agency, I added Danny Woodhead, Mike Wallace, and Brian Hartline. Now Johnny has some real weapons he can use. Also replaced Hoyer with Matt Moore, but that was just to save a few bucks.

Two games in, and I actually can complete some deep passes now. Woodhead seems to be a better fit for me as he is a good reciever out of the back field. Wallace, despite being rated 85 overall, is playing like an All-Pro. I had originally targeted Hakeem Nicks, but I'm glad I had to go to plan B.

[alldaws1]

I started a franchise with the Cowboys using the latest roster update and from the off Rolando McClain is the 5th most popular player on the team (shows up in the jersey sales list). Shows what state Dallas is in!

[Maxx]

Texas?

[alldaws1]

Har-har.

[RoyWill Rumble]

So, I don't really LIKE football in the least bit or get it, but I enjoyed Madden 2005 and from what I've seen of Madden 15, it's done quite a bit of good for the series. I have no intention of playing online, but I like the idea of Connected Franchise and I like that it seems to have tutorials to teach people a bit about football.

Sooooooooooooooooooo, might this be worth it, say, for a reduced price around Christmas? Again, I don't like football, but if the tutorial mode will teach me a bit to get into the game and have a kinda okay grasp of the minutia of football, that'd be rad.

[Toe]

I think so. It's a well made game and I've had more fun with this years game then I've had with a football game since NFL 2K1 on the Dreamcast.

[Meacon Keaton]

I wish I had a dollar for every time I hit a crappy quarterback as he was throwing, only for him to have a perfect pass right to his wide out...

[Cole]

I wish I had a dollar for every time I hit a crappy quarterback as he was throwing, only for him to have a perfect pass right to his wide out...

That's what I mean, so much for their new improved variance of qb passes. What skill level do you play on? I'm gonna try a set of sliders when I have some time tomorrow/this weekend, it usually helps for dumb AI problems and helps balance the user/ai play.

[Toe]

I saved over by Browns game by accident. Shit.

[DFF]

Finally get used to the run game

Despite losing more than I'm winning (playing as the Jaguars on All Pro is a challenge!) I'm really enjoying this year's edition.