JasonM

Hey you don't like FM, don't play it and play FIFA instead, no skin off SI's noise considering the amount of copies of FM sold worldwide (Y)

Hey I love FM as the next guy, but in it's core the tactic engine is essentially the same as what I played when I started playing at CM01/02.

I expect them to actually continue improving it every once in a while instead of slapping a new paintjob on it and calling it a 2012 BMW.

I am in the naïve hope that they will revamp the tactics system. You can argue that the whole new/classic modes is totally different but it isn't dammit.

It's still putting 11 dots on predefined spots on a grid and giving them a certain set of orders.

I rather have it like in games likes PES/FIFA/Fifa Manager where you can freeform players on the pitch and have crazy shit like two AML's or whatnot. I want to be exact in the fact I want my winger to stick to the sideline or to play closer to the AMC.

I know you can add stuff like ''byline/cut inside/norma'', but if you ask me it is not encompassing enough. And the current engine is way too exploitable like you could see in FM12 where some blokes upload 53423 versions of their ''godly'' 433 tactic that makes you win the Premiera Division with Almeria in the first season.

SI, Y U NO GIEF MOAR FREEDOMZ?!

Running game has been decent for me on All-Pro, getting around 80 yards every game with Javarris Jackson (Beanie Wells is injured with a broken jaw).

I am good at just running the ball, but quite honestly juking and spinning and all that jazz is just something I can't get the hang off. I see other people who play Madden juke the crap out of defenders and doing the perfect spin moves. But the only thing I get with a spin move is a tackle in the back. And with the juke I just get tackled.

Does anyone know how you even pull those moves off without getting absolutely murdered by the LB?

You can change auto sprint in CC. Move right stick to More at the top, go into My League and then League Settings, scroll down to Team Settings. As far as I'm aware you can't change Gameplan playcalling to Conventional though.

I don't mind Auto Sprint this year. With the improved O-Line and D-Line intelligence the line doesn't immediately implode the moment you start to sprint in 13.

The playcalling reverting back to Gameflow on the other hand is quite annoying. I mean it's only 3 things you gotta do in every game, but you shouldn't have to do it more than one time.

I hope EA patches quite a few things in the next patch. Also one thing I want to see fixed or made easier is adding sliders to CCM. As far as i'm aware a couple of things are impossible to change once you have started a CCM career (player speed threshold among others)

Should I get this game?

I have never played Dark Souls or the game before it, and the only thing I really know is that it's apparently extremely hard and unforgiving. And that the forward dive looks like a Mick Foley bump.

Assuming your useless receivers don't get brushed by a stiff breeze and drop a pass they should have nailed. Three straight passes dropped.

1: Are you throwing the ball too hard? If you gun every pass especially on short ranges, they have a harder time gripping it.

2: Is it raining or snowing in the game? If so, the game pretty much fucks you right there because everyone forgets how to hold a ball.

3: Is your receiver any good? It helps if your receiver has good (85+) catching and also catching in traffic.

4: To add to number 3, do your receivers get smacked right after they catch the ball because there are only a few receivers who can hold onto a ball when they get trucked a second later.

5: All of the above?

BLUE16! BLUE16! OHIO! OHIO! RED25! OHIO BLACK13! OHIO! OHIO! OHIO! HIKE!

Sometimes I throw on third and short to stop them jamming the box It's worth a punt a game if it goes wrong if it means that you don't get stuffed repeatedly late by seven and eight man fronts with no respect for your air game.

Third and short is almost guaranteed for me to try a HB Draw. If they jam the line I will audible into a passing play and I will have WR's already present.

R.I.P. MCD.

One of the most gifted yet underrated actors out there, he showed us that he could make us smile (the whole 9 yards) and feel sad (Green Mile)

It gets thrown around a lot, but he truly died too young, only 54. That's just as old as my mother.

A talented actor taken away from us, I truly hope he is in a better place now.

The thing I dislike about Gameflow the far most is the thing's tendency to do boneheaded moves in stupid situations.

Like it tells me to do a run play on 3rd and 14th whilst there is no ghost of a chance for me to get into field goal range or even first down barring a complete miracle.

Or wanting me to do a Play Action on 3rd and long even though the Ai knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am going to pass it anyway, leaving me open for a sack.

That's why I hardly ever use the Ask Madden function either, it tends to come up with stupid ideas in stupid situations.

I rather select my own through ''play type'', it was challenging at first but you tend to find and create your own playbook inside the playbook with plays you like. After a while you will find that nice I-Form pass that you can also audible out of quickly and safely or that 4 wide set that is effective as a draw play.

Once I started to use ''play type'' the game got a lot more fun for me and a lot more hands on too, I still make boneheaded moves but I got quite a few go-to plays that I try to use often. Be it draw plays, slant plays or a long gain play...

I can suggest using ''Play Type'' to everyone, I am not a NFL savant, heck I am pretty unknowledgeable about the sport in terms of plays. But it gives you a lot of freedom to pick the general type of play you want to run (Quick Pass, Standard, Inside handoff, FB Run etc etc.) It has become unmissable for me.

So yeah, I bought all three and played the first episode... but I can't seem to get to the second. Everytime I click play on the second episode it brings me back to the beginning of the first. Even when I try and start a new game (not continuing from the first episode) it still brings me to the first one. Anyone else get this? Or am I just stupid?

Silly question but have you tried un-installing and installing it again?

Maybe there is a problem with your install that makes the game think you don't have the other episode?

If not, have you watched through the entire ''in the next episode'' bit, I am not sure but maybe the game saves after that?

So, assumedly in CC you can carry it on for however many years it is (30?) but don't have to play as the same person for all of it? If I retire as the coach I'm playing as now, I'd get an opportunity to take over as somebody else rather than it just ending?

I am not certain but I am pretty sure that is possible yes. If you retire the universe you play in continues to exist so you can jump in as a new player... But I am not certain.

Just played another round of Madden 13 with my Cardinals CCM.

Third week was against the Eagles, hard fought games with some terrible passing from me (Skelton, you suck) and Eagles manage to edge it out in the last minute with a field goal kick to end it 27-24.

After the game I decided to drop Skelton to give Kolb a try and in the two weeks that followed it was clear I made the good choice.

Then a game against the Dolphins, I don't know Garrard for the life of me but he had me running in circles all game long and when I shut down his passing game he decided to rumble down the line for a first down himself, stupid West coast offense...

But I came back by working hard and mostly lots of effective passing with Kolb I survived the game and finished 30-15, too bad Beanie Wells got injured in the game =(

Then I faced the Rams in St. Louis, and mother of god I absolutely destroyed them for the latter 3 quarters of the game. I threw a pick early in the game giving them an early 13-3 lead but I came back and gotten a lot of defensive stops and Larry Fitzgerald was on fire all game long getting 3 TD receptions and proving to be the safest guy on offense, he had some magnificient catches that could have easily been interceptions if he hadn't jumped for it. The backup HB who is only 69 overall had a pretty damn effective game, he got lots of penetration and even 2 redzone TD's to boot for his efforts, he ended with like 158 yards rushing for the game. The player of the game though was Greg Toler the CB who had 2 interceptions and returned both of them for 7 points. In the last quarter of the game Bradford went for waaay too much passes just to get close to my score and I slaughtered him with 5 interceptions and 3 sacks on the poor guy. And with the Rams going pass-first in the final quarters really helped me lock the game up. I won the game 63-27, a whopping 36 point difference, and I got a nice achievement for it for breaking the 50 point mark.

For those who want to know, I am playing on All-Pro, 15 min, 15sec play clock. And I choose my own offense plays through ''play type'' instead of doing gameflow or askmadden.

Default All-Pro is pretty fun, I have some extremely frustrating moments like the game against the Eagles where Michael Vick just straight up dogged me (pun intended), and also game 2 of the season where I lost like 17-50 to the Patriots.

Sometimes you lose big, sometimes you win big, a lot of times the games tend to go straight through the middle until one team breaks the other guy's morale.

The only thing that is annoying me right now is that the game keeps reverting me back to gameflow every single game, and I have to change it back to conventional before every practice/game, and that is quite annoying.

Wow, just wow is my feeling after I just finished episode 3.

Spoilered due to size and massive plot spoilers.

First having to leave that woman on the streets back in Macon I felt extremely guilty about, I am playing a nice-guy Lee too and it just feels like I was betraying myself for leaving the woman to be killed...

Then you get the whole stuff with stuff gone missing and having to find it, I suspected Ben from the start and when I heard drugs where stolen I thought he was using the shit for himself or something... I also decided to tell everyone but Lily the truth about Lee's past, even though I was pro Lily through the first two games she just looked like she was going mad and to tell her I am a convicted killer would have certainly made her crazy... I made Carley live btw and just rolled with the fact Lee and her got involved or something...

Then the whole raid on the camp starts and Lily losing her mind, and then I just was in utter shock when she shot Carley right in the head. I was so shocked I left her behind purely from my own feeling of shock and betrayal, I felt bad for Lily but she killed someone in cold blood. So from one moment to the other I lost two characters that I was pretty engrossed into. Then Duck gets bitten and he was dying.

Then the group finds the train and I decide to accomodate Duck in his last moments by getting him water and crackers. I was already pretty emotionally spent at that point with Carleys death and also Lily being left behind.

Then Chuck rolls along, I find him a bit... On the odd side of the equasion, I don't really trust him but I am pretty sure the story will make him the trustworthy kind because he is a bum...

And then after fixing up the train we got to say our goodbyes to Duck, I really felt sorry for the guy even though he was one of the only ones I didn't really care for in the story. And with Katjaa commiting suicide my heart just broke seeing Kenny break down in tears, I decided to put Duck away but it just felt so hard. Having to lose 4 characters in one episode just demolished me.

And then Ben decides to tell me he was the culprit of the drug embezzling, I could have literally pushed him over the railing at that point... I knew he was the guy but I was pretty angry for him to come out and be honest about it, but I felt bad for him at the same time having the weight of Carleys death and Lily's abandonment on his mind...

And then we meet Omid and Christa. Omid seems like a nice guy but in terms of concentration he looks like a grown up version of Duck, he looks like a nice guy though. Christa on the other hand is the more cold one clearly looking to be a mother for Clementine and clearly distrusting Lee for some reason we will probably know in the future.

The twist with the walkie talkie I am a bit ''eh'' on, it looks like an unnecesary plot twist just to involve Clem's parents some sort of way but it looks extremely far fetched and I will have to see where it leads, I would rather have something more with the group instead of Clem, but I guess she deserves a bit of the spotlight on her.

But really, Episode 3 is by far the best episode in this entire season. I never had expected it but it tugged every single heart string there was to tug. When Doug died I didn't care that much because I hardly knew the guy, and same with Mark. Larry was clearly gonna die the moment I saw him get the heart attack in episode 1, and I tried to salvage and made Larry like Lee but that didn't help so I wasn't really that angry when Kenny splatted his brains.

Spoilered due to massive ep3 spoilers.

But losing the likes of Carley, Lily, Duck and Katjaa in one episode just wrecked me emotionally. I really started to like all those characters and I never have been so emotionally invested in this game and feel so angry and sad to see the characters die.

Telltale has really done a phenomenal job and this game should receive so much more attention in mainstream, it is really the first game barring maybe MGS3 that has drained me emotionally by what happened in a game. It's amazing, it truly is.

I can't wait for Episode 4 to come out, and I do hope that they get a chance to make a second season, maybe with another setting alltogether.

Wow...

I saved Doug. The reasoning behind it was Carly had a friggen gun! Obviously she was retarded.

I had the same freaking idea.

Also aside from her having a friggen gun, she could have tried to be a bit quicker with the killage and help Doug... Guess she didn't like him THAT much.

I started my coach version of CCM with the Cardies (All-Pro, 15 minutes, 15 second playclock) and after skipping through pre-season and cutting a bunch of players (Signed Plaxico as my only notable signing) I jumped into the Regular Season.

First game against the Seahawks I dominated from top to bottom with a phenomenal 37-10 win locking down their defense and wearing out the defense with Beanie's lethal ground game (had a 63 yard TD on his second run!) And I had something like 225 yards rushing with him alone, sadly just missed out on the record list. The draw play was lethal all on it's own managing to fool the defense a lot.

Skelton also threw 3 TD's and a pick and the recipients where naturally Fitz with 2 TD catches and Floyd with 1 beautiful catch in full stretch.

My second game was against the pats, and that game was a complete trainwreck of a contest ending in 40-13 for the Patriots. Brady and Co. had my defense in shambles for the majority of the game and my offense was the drizzling shits for the majority of 3 quarters only recording 10 points through the first 3. Skelton threw like 1 TD and 5 interceptions as I was forcing passes left and right and the running game was flaccid and I couldn't get Beanie established, so I ended up being very predictable and the Pats whipped me for it.

Hopefully my third game will be better than against the pats, still liking it a lot.

Hey Dragsy, do you know in what situations to use the O-Line shifts?

I guess they are used to make sure the O-Line covers the correct side when they are showing blitz or something, but I have no idea what order to use in what situation.

What's your Gamertag? I'll be around in about half an hour, I can give you a game, see if I can help you out a bit. It's probably a playcalling thing, or you're being too aggressive.

my GT is LarZieJ, and if I catch a ball I always get tackled and lose the ball again

I feel your pain Larziej, i have the same thing with playing above Pro.

Once you go above pro the game starts to ''cheat'', or give themselves an advantage or you a disadvantage to make the game more ''challenging'' which is absolutely crock since it only makes it unfair for the gamer.

I can't wait for the first proper slider sets to appear who are properly tested and solid.

Do we need to create someone then? Can we play as a pro?

Thats the awesome thing about Connected Careers online this year, you could easily have 32 guys in the league and all play your own created Rookie QB in the league to see who is the very best.

And that makes me very annoyed not to have gold now, because I would love this and to take the Eagles to their first Super Bowl win.

Yeah in player mode the running game seems horrid. I became the starter for the Chifs and was putting up decent numbers with an 82 rating, but Jamaal Charles was lucky to hit 50 yards. Usually in player mode they get 1-2 yards a carry no matter how good the back is. Same shit as in from superstar mode from before.

Exactly.

I have all but given up on Peterson right now, I think I will only going to use him to prevent becoming predictable and as a backfield receiver when it´s needed. But that´s not needed since Harvin and Simpson are gobbling up my passes like a fat kid on thanksgiving.

I am playing Connected Careers as a 2nd overall QB for the Vikes and whilst I am absolutely murdering people with my passing game, the running game is infuriatingly bad for me.

I am trying to give AP plenty of running opportunities and just try to use the passing game as the second weapon. But AP can't get the yardage for the life of him for me.

The most annoying thing is when I run a running play he either runs outside, gets pushed away and ends up eating a 5 yard loss. Or he runs into the O-Line for 2 seconds and then wipes out by losing his footing and falling on his ass.

He gets clear and easy lanes to sprint through but he ignores them and just tries to go through the defense instead and it's starting to piss me off quite a bit at his pure stupidity. He had like 15 yards in 25 attempts in the season opener against the 49'ers.

I end up having to do a lot of 3rd and long passing plays and that in turn causes my stats to tank quite a bit from having to go long so much because AP can't deliver the goods for the team.

Even though I got 6 TD's in 2 games (49'ers 3, Colts 3), I also got 5 intercepts and quite a few sacks too because I have to gamble with 10+yrd passes so much...

Playing the running game myself is pretty doable, but with the AI controlling Peterson it's just absolutely useless for me.

Infinity engine is pretty buggy at times, most of the problems luckily only happen after the play is already stopped.

The thing I do see commonly is when the AI running back cant get open and runs into the O-Line for 2 seconds and proceeds to lose his footing and fall on his ass... But that is also because the AI tends to think you can get past by going through the defense instead of around.

Also AI running just deciding to ignore the obvious lane and going around causing them to get tackled for big loss, very annoying.

A thing I tend to use when passing is to first check if the defense is playing zone/man against me.

Send one of your receivers in motion to the other side and if he gets followed they are most likely using man, if he isn't followed they are most likely playing zone on you. It's not a 100% certainty but it does help.

If they are playing zone, try to overload the defense by having 3 receivers on the right side when there are only 2 backs, that means one will have an easier time getting open for a pass.

In the case of man you can try to hotroute one of the receivers to make a cut or something else that has him suddenly change directions or stop in his tracks, that can cause the defender to overcommit and gives you a chance to pass to the open guy. If you got extremely quick receivers and you know the guy marking him isn't fast, you can also try a slant or streak and have the receiver try to burn him long.

A final thing if they are playing man, try to check if every receiver is marked by a guy, if that isn't the case then you can go for the open guy because either the safety needs to drop back or someone else must commit which often means there will be a weakness or opening somewhere.

And finally, don't be afraid to just laser a ball to the short option, if you think he is a solid choice just toss it to him and try to throw it so hard the defender can't intercept it.

Also what could help is to diversify your playcalling, if you are running on first the majority of the time spice it up by doing a runfake and tossing it. Vice versa if you are throwing it on 2-3, try to draw and give your runner a chance to steal some yardage or even first down.

It's both offline and online.

Sweeeeet. Finally a NFL career mode that looks that it actually has you work for it.

Chief's helmets are red.

apparently they are... No idea why I came up with white...

The other question about careers still stands.