All-Madden mode, any tips?

[DerrtySlime]

i find that when i rely on a playa dn use it repeditly, the computer will realzie this and pick me off. also , dont go for long bombs a lot they never work. you kind of have to go for short yardage.

[shaolinstyle]

You can throw streaks vs single coverage all day if you WR is tall and you have good stick skillz ( meaning you click on and catch the ball yourself)

[Shadowrun]

shaolin have you seen this online, people will take the WR over and run away from the ball straight into your Safety.

Then they go back and catch the ball (and lots of times you get a def pass interference)

[shaolinstyle]

Unfortunately i haven't played this years madden at all since i took a break to really focus on poker. Now that i am doing ok in poker i will probably get back into madden on madden 08. Playing online in general though you will usually be exposed to the cheapest of tactics..sometimes even worse than what the real pro ballers use. To combat that particular strat though i would say you should go into mini camp and do db swat drills as much as u can to get your stick skillz up. Every year of madden there's usually atleast a handful of stuff that is just impossible to stop unless u click on and do something about it yourself.

Although i havent played 07 if anyone has 07 specific questions i can ask my friend who still plays and is much better player than i was.....

[shaolinstyle]

if there's any interest in it...i could probably spend a lil time and write up a basic guide on how to improve your madden game to a high level....let me know if you guys would be interested in something like that....

[BK1248]

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if there's any interest in it...i could probably spend a lil time and write up a basic guide on how to improve your madden game to a high level....let me know if you guys would be interested in something like that....

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id be interested, i lost 1600 in madden this year

[shaolinstyle]

i will have it up by tonight...tomm at the latest

[Golden_Rhino]

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i will have it up by tonight...tomm at the latest

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I'm waiting......

[ThaHero]

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if there's any interest in it...i could probably spend a lil time and write up a basic guide on how to improve your madden game to a high level....let me know if you guys would be interested in something like that....

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id be interested, i lost 1600 in madden this year

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Ouch. FWIW I probably made close to that much some years, could make more if I actually cared and tried harder. Those tournaments are fun, but the "best" players generally have just broken the game and win most of their money by borderline or outright cheating. Really sucks the fun out of playing.

[shaolinstyle]

How to turn yourself into a madden baller.

General tips:

1. Work on your stick. This is so important for both offense (user catching passes) and defense (user picks and manual coverage) that it should be practiced every day before and after you lab/play games. Db swat drills until u cant stand it anymore.

2. Dont be the guy that complains when he cant stop something. As broken as the game usually is...there is always either an outright counter, or at the very least something to slow down even the most broken of plays/defenses. If you encounter something that u just cant stop, don't complain that it's cheating. Get in practice mode and figure out a way stop it. If you spend a reasonable amount of time and still can't figure out how to stop it, then learn how to DO IT. If you can't stop it run it.

3. Much like real football, the game is won in practice mode. When i was one of the best in the world (madden 2004), I rarely played any games when practicing. All of my time was spent in practice mode looking for new plays, and new tactics to confuse people. When i finally got to the point where i was confident i could score every time no matter who i played or what defense they ran, THEN i started to play a lot of games.

4. Play online! A lot of the old school tournament ballers complain that online has ruined the game, and they are RIGHT. Playing online is the best way to be exposed to various tactics and plays. Unless you are friends with VERY skilled players, you need to play online as much as possible. So get online, build up a reasonable rank, and play the best competition you can find.

5. When you play online, record your games. This is generally frowned upon when used to copy someone's offense or defense, but you should use this to improve your own play. Whenever you play someone and they lock your offense up, or they torch your defense, you will be able to watch the tape...see what the defense/offense is....and also see what mistakes you made. (missed open receiver, called a bad defense on 3rd and 10 etc.)

6. And lasst but not least, NEVER PLAY ON all-pro. Lol i shouldnt even have to mention this but i will just in case some of you do. No tournament or money game will ever be played on all-pro, The defensive ai is bad enough on all-madden, i couldnt even imagine trying to play the game on all-pro.

Offensive Tips:

Giving advice on how to construct your offense or defense is sort of difficult. There are many ways to successfully go about doing this, so I will only tell you what worked for me.

After you've decided what team to use, (hopefully a team with big wrs a good rb, and atleast decent defense, mobile QB is also a good thing to have) you need to pick a playbook. I usually go through every single play book and look for formations that are only included in maybe 1 or 2 of the playbooks in the game. This is usually where you find the cheese [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. No matter what you decide to run, make sure you concentrate on one or at the most two formations in your playbook. I can't think of one player i've ever come across that ran multiple formations and was good at the game. So after you you decide on a playbook and formation or two, it's time to hit the lab. The way to lab is to go thru all the plays and find routes that u can consistently beat man coverage with bump and run. This is a very important step, and it may take awhile, but the more time u spend breaking down man the better you will be. Zone coverage is usually much easier to beat in madden than man lock is. U only need 1 or 2 man beaters, but they have to be reliable, for example having 2 wrs running routes that kill man in the same play. That way your opponent cant manually cover both and will have to pick a side. For zone coverage, work on throwing streaks to big wr's when they are one on one with safety, throw them over and over vs a defense like Cover 2, until you can click on to the WR, jump and catch it every time without messing up. This is a big step towards betting zone. A few other things that usually work vs zone defense are: Playaction (watch out for blitzes though), sending multiple receivers to one area of the field, and scrambling if you have a mobile quarterback. If you really struggle on offense... use a team like ATL or TENN and scramble everytime u hike the ball and the WR u wanted to throw too isn't open. u can use a mobile qb as a good crutch until you improve.

Defensive tips:

I must admitt, that i definately was not known in the madden world for my defense. I found labbing on defense very boring and rarely spent enough time doing it. I always had ridiculous offense and defense that was good enough to get me atleast 1 stop (usually all i needed), But i have played against the best defensive players in the world many times so i can atleast give u a couple of tips.

1. STICK, do NOT leave home with out it. So important.

2. Mix it up (something i never did). Practice calling different types of defenses. dont always run man, don't always run zone, don't always blitz etc.

3. Don't expect the computer to stop anything for you. So many players just call their defense and hope it works. Don't be one of those players. Make adjustments in every defense you run. if you think a particular route may be coming, hotroute someone to stop it. Always play on a safety or LB and roam the field. Think of it as playing center field. A good player with exceptional stick can sometimes lock down a whole side of the field by himself only using a safety. Start off covering one area....then if u see a wr that u think your opponent might throw to, run over there and cover it. Basically just play as active as possible on defense, never just sit there and let the computer do it.

4. Try to confuse your opponent. There are many ways to play defense, one good way that i and a lot of my friends used was to have a defensive formation that we used for each the different offensive sets that we expected to see. And about 3 or 4 different defensive plays in each formation. the trick is to set all 3 or 4 plays up identically every snap. So your defense looks the same every play but they dont know if it's man or zone...blitz or coverage.

This probably isn't the best guide, but hopefully it atleast helps some of you on your journey to become a better play, and give you atleast a little insight to how serious madden players prepare. And sorry for the delay, I have been rather busy the past few days. I actually opened my xbox 360 that ive had for awhile today and will probably start playing a little bit online, so if anyone wants to talk madden or get some games in... shoot me a pm

~shaolin