Finally, EA Sports released some gameplay footage for Madden 18. The game and its developers have been under heavy scrutiny over the last couple weeks, and people became worried about the quality of the game—which is fair, considering if they were happy with the game’s progress, more likely would have been released (that was the thought, at least). The release of the gameplay trailer should be seen as a positive, though—even if its release was overdue.
As you can see, the trailer says, “GAME ENGINE FOOTAGE”, meaning some of it might not be actual gameplay. However, there are at least a few glimpses of gameplay in the trailer, and we’re going to break the whole one-minute down.
Frostbite
The biggest takeaway from the trailer is the use of the new frostbite engine. EA’s powerful engine, which is used in the hit war video game series Battlefield, is being used in Madden for the first time in Madden 18. Frostbite is a big factor in making the parts of this trailer that look good, and I’ll get into that with these other points.
The crowd looks good
Fans are hopping up and down, capturing the rowdy Seattle crowd. In past Maddens, the fans look terrible, honestly. But they do look like they are more animated overall in Madden 18, and we’ll have to see more of that in the actual gameplay as opposed to this cut scene that might not even be in the game. Even the fire accompanying Kam Chancellor’s entrance looks good, though.
Player entrances
We see Kam Chancellor, Tyrod Taylor, and Khalil Mack exiting the tunnel to start the trailer. It’s instantly noticeable that the players move better with the Frostbite engine, as they are less robotic than in the past. Fireworks looks great—probably another perk of Frostbite. The only thing about the player entrances is they seem awkward and unrealistic. There’s no other players around, but perhaps that’ll look better on the final game.
Gameplay and Target Passing
We only get about three seconds of seeing actual user gameplay—which is not a positive sign. If they were happy with the gameplay, it should probably be shown more. It’s almost like they are pulling the wool over our eyes, but the glimpses we see do look pretty good; so who knows what’s going on? The pocket for Tom Brady in the first clip good, like it’s more navigable than in the past. And the movement of the Brady character in the game looks like himself as he goes from one receiver to another. When he throws to Edelman, the catch looks much more natural as he body-catches it—this is a result of the Frostbite engine.
Then we see Dak Prescott doing the same thing—dropping back with the target passing and throwing to Dez Bryant. This time, we see Prescott throw from the normal gameplay angle and it looks similar to his real-life throwing motion. If they were able to utilize the new engine to make player movements, including quarterback throwing motions, more realistic, it would be great for those looking for a realistic simulation-style playing experience.
The target passing is unclear at this point. A gameplay blog explaining how exactly it works would help. But the icon is bigger than I thought, and it lets you put the ball where you want. I guess there isn’t much to it, but it’d be ideal if it allowed back-shoulder throws.
Coaching Adjustments
The addition of coaching adjustments (which were included in EA’s own NCAA Football games years in advance) should be a welcome addition. I’m looking forward to gameplay blogs about this too. Apparently, you can match up corners against certain receivers, but it might not be as in-depth as we would like (you might not be able to assign particular corners to particular receivers, and instead it might be by overall, by height, etc. only).
Catch types are still in
Unfortunately for many, the catch styles (Y/triangle for aggressive catch, X/square for run after catch, and A/X for possession catch) are still in. These just aren’t very realistic at all, and it’d be better if they just did without them and allowed the receivers to catch it how they should catch it. It’d eliminate receivers just falling down with the possession catch, running out of bounds with the RAC (though it is said to be fixed in Madden 18), and going up one-handed and/or jumping super high with the aggressive catch. Just get rid of them and make it more realistic.
Player inaccuracies and errors
Some of the errors in this trailer are simply unacceptable. Tyrod Taylor doesn’t have his right arm sleeve. The sleeves, while improved and not going all the way up to the shoulder, still look like they are just a change in skin color and kind of colored on instead of looking like real arm sleeves. J.J. Watt’s arm brace looks terrible. And Jordy Nelson is wearing a visor. It’d be nice if Madden could get things correct and have the players wear what they really wear.
As for the error, Matt Ryan is dropping back without a football in his hands. It’s mind-blogging they could let that slide. They couldn’t find another clip to put instead? If that would be too much trouble, they could’ve just removed that and made the trailer one second shorter. Taking a step back, it’s not some huge deal to have this error. But taking another step back, it shows some of the issues the game has had over the last several years while being exclusive. One or two errors, fine. But multiple errors and inaccuracies shouldn’t happen like this.
Three play styles
The three different play styles (Arcade, Simulation, and Competitive) have been known, and it was the final feature shown in the trailer. My only hope is that Simulation is actually simulation—meaning accurate stats when playing games (a 15-minute quarter game would be fine, like in NBA 2K how 12-minute quarters gives realistic results/scores) and accurate stats over an entire season in franchise mode.
Conclusion
Overall, the trailer looks good and gives hope that Madden 18 will take a positive step in the right direction as they use the Frostbite engine for the first time. Presumably, the EA team has more than enough resources to give an accurate representation of the players and the gear they wear. While CFM (franchise mode) doesn’t appear to be getting any changes, gameplay is what will make this game. If the gameplay ends up being good and realistic (and this trailer indicates it might be), the game should be a good one.
leggooooo
Dak to Dez looking good