5 New Things in Madden NFL 12

Smarter defenses, authentic NFL presentation, and custom playbooks.

EA doesn't care if there's an NFL football season -- it's still set to release Madden NFL 12 on August 30. And the team at Tiburon is looking to bring some big improvements this year.

Here are five things new to Madden this year (or better than last year).

Presentation

If the devil's in the details, then Madden NFL 11 is going to be pretty devilish this year. The presentation hasn't just been revamped, but completely remade from top to bottom to provide a truly authentic gameday experience. EA used NFL Films cinematographers to capture virtual versions of various football situations. The result is authentic camera angles and movements. It looks like the real deal you'd watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Tiburon gave added attention to detail, right down to the green dot on the mic'd helmets of the QB and defensive play caller. Head sizes are more properly scaled, the ball size is correct (it used to be purposefully enormous), and helmets get scratches that block out reflections.

Custom Playbooks

The Chargers can run the Wildcat this season. I don't know why you would want this, but you can make it work. Take any play from any team and add it to your playbook. Remove plays you don't like, order plays as you want them to appear in the game -- there's a lot of control here. And all of this is integrated with Gameflow, the system that is meant to smartly select plays for you (though it didn't always work last season). You can even rate the plays in your playbook to determine how often Gameflow selects them.

Gameflow

Gameflow is back and Tiburon is promising tweaks to make it more useful. The big issue with last year's version of Gameflow was that it made some really dumb play calls at times. I'm told that's all fixed -- but no one will know for sure without playing a bunch of games of Madden.

What I can assure you has gotten better is your ability to manage the calls Gameflow makes. Between plays on defense, you can toggle Balanced, Aggressive, and Conservative play calling. As you switch, you'll see the call Gameflow will make if that's your selection. On offense, you can have Pass Heavy, Run Heavy, and Balanced.

Collision Technology

Football's about dudes banging into dudes. Madden NFL 12 gets the banging right. Focus was given to freeing Madden from requiring players to snap into certain positions for tackles. Instead, animations can trigger from any angle and any position on the gridiron. And the ball carrier's animations don't appear to get locked into place either. As more tacklers pile on, the carrier's animation changes. Rather than clicking into a pre-determined fall animation, there can be a struggle for another yard or a powerful push backwards. The result is a more visually impressive game of football, but also one that plays more realistically.

The tackle button is used a bit more smartly now as well. If close enough, it initiates a wrap tackle, not a dive tackle. Slow down a runner and try and hold him up so a safety can storm in and try to dislodge the ball.

With limited time playing Madden 12, it's hard to say how crushing big hits will be in the new system or if this means the running game will gain the nuance missing from last year's game.

Better Coverage

New blitz packages have been added, along with the Cover 6 formation. More importantly, the defense seems a tad smarter. For instance, overload on the left and the cornerbacks are smart enough to shift over slightly.

When the defense was in zone coverage in last year's Madden, your quarterback could pretty much go to town. Tiburon has addressed these issues, too. I saw the AI adjust to my plays on the fly, rather than having defenders stuck in an invisible circle. They react more like real linebackers and corners would. Of course, ratings can affect some of this -- so don't blame the game if your crappy defense doesn't know how to react properly.

EA has given attention to Madden's gameplay and presentation over the past few years, so seeing even more of this isn't a shock. The authentic team intros and camera movements during the game are awesome and the gameplay feels a bit more challenging than last year.

The big question lands on Dynasty and Superstar modes. Both had no improvements last year and have been disappointments. If Madden NFL 12 is going to break through and become the great football game fans have been dying to play, then these two modes will need to see drastic overhauls this year. We'll be seeing both in the coming months. Fingers crossed that EA did them justice.

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