The first thing I did was take those stupid IQ tests. I'm going to give the Madden IQ thing a try for a few weeks and see how the game plays using that before I go with Pre-set difficulty settings and slider tweaks.
I then went in to see all the various modes and options, viewed some rosters, set my music play list (they always have all the cool NFL Fims music tracks unselected in the "jukebox"), I maxed out penalty settings since those are never called, I changed game time to 12 minute quarters and I viewed the default audibles. Then, after about an hour of messing around, I fired up my first game. I decided to re-create the recent preseason game of the Dolphins vs. Bucs at Dolphin Stadium.
I ended up winning 29-7. It sounds like I dominated, but I really didn't. I only scored one offensive TD, a run by Brown. The rest came from 5 FGs and an interception I returned for a TD.
The Bucs turned the ball over 3 times (2 interceptions and one fumble). I had no turnovers although I did fumble twice, but I recovered both times. First fumble was by Brown as I was fighting for additional yards. The second came after my QB got blind sided. Both times a Dolphin lineman fell on the ball. I scored 17 points as a result of the Bucs' turnovers, so it was not like my offense was dominating.
McCown (Pennington is not on the roster yet) finished the game with 0 tds, 0 ints, about 58% completion percentage and about 178 yards. I was sacked twice. Pretty realistic stats.
Ronnie Brown rushed for a little over 100 yards with a 4.0 ypc average. But they were all hard fought yards. He only had one nice run of about 17 yards.
I've been reading a lot about the CPU QBs being too accurate, but I held Jeff Garcia to a 60% completion percentage and he only had about 190 yards with one TD.
The biggest problem I saw was that the CPU running game was pretty weak. They barely cracked 60 yards for the game (if that).
Now, some gameplay impressions.
First, I want to get this out of my system. I HATE THE QB ANIMATIONS!!! Whew, I feel better. This is one area where 2K is 100X better than Madden. The way the QB drops back, shuffles around in the pocket, and throws, looks totally unrealistic. QB's also don't seem to have to wind up to throw long passes. They get the ball out way too fast and a lot of the times they only use their arms as if they were throwing a 10 yard pass, yet they are zipping the ball 30 yards down the field. Looks terrible. This needs to be fixed next year. Also, the football looks way too big in their hands.
Other than the terrible animations, the passing game felt pretty good. I think the passes fly through the air too fast, but that is fine. I was able to put some touch on a few passes and lay the ball in just over the linebackers and just before the safeties. That felt good, since in past Madden games you know those linebackers could swat anything down that was near them.
The running game felt like a big improvement over past Madden games. The biggest reason being gang tackles and the ability to break out of animations. The gang tackles are not as dynamic or impressive as the 2K games, but it is better than the single-man tackle-fest Madden was a few years ago. You can fight for some extra yardage now after going into a tackle animation so the animations don't feel as canned as they used to. The lanes and holes opened up by your o-line won't stay open for very long so you really have to follow the play to a T, hit the hole hard and fast, and be happy grinding away for 4 yards at a time (if you are lucky).
One thing I have always enjoyed more in Madden than the 2K series is playing defense. I enjoy playing as a MLB, but never felt comfortable controlling one in any of the 2K games. I would always over-run plays and take the linebacker out of the play. In Madden I feel like I can get him to go where I want and I have a much more enjoyable experience. I was also able to put good pressure on the quarterback by mixing up my blitzing and changing from Man to Zone coverages often to keep him off balance. The great thing was that it wasn't automatic. Sometimes the blitz would make him rush a throw, or dump it off to a RB, but the CPU would also read it on occasion and hit the whole in my D for a decent gain. It was a good back and forth.
I'm going to need to turn down FG accuracy because I was 5/5 on FGs from all sorts of distances (3 were 40+ yards) and I had perfect aim and power each time. Didn't come close to missing one.
Overall, my first game was a fun experience. There are some things I don't like and I still think that 2K has Madden beat as far as realistic animations and the tackling system is concerned, but it sure was fun playing as the Dolphins again.
Plenty more testing left to try.
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