'Madden 13' Gets Improved Presentation and Big Animation Changes

Apr 25, 2012 by Anthony Taormina

When EA Sports proclaimed that this year’s iteration of its long running franchise, Madden 13, would feature substantial improvements on the defensive side of the ball it left us a bit confused. While defense is definitely one area where Madden 12 was lacking, it was in the presentation and the offensive animations that things became really problematic.

Luckily both those elements of Madden are getting an overhaul for Madden 13, with a brand new CBS-inspired presentation, and tons of new animation improvements. EA detailed some of those today, and they clearly seem to be headed in the right direction.

As was said, Madden 13‘s presentation will be significantly improved over last year’s iteration, with Phil Simms and Jim Nantz taking over broadcasting duties. Gone are the awkward silences and pregnant pauses, replaced with idle banter between Nantz and Simms to keep the player engaged.

Visually, the pre-game will look markedly different — with a ton of camera effects being thrown in to create the illusion that what the player is seeing is as close to a real pre-game as possible. But let’s be honest, after the first couple times, players are going to start skipping right through it.

And then, of course, there are the on-the-ball (and off the ball) improvements that are being made for Madden 13. The two most important changes coming to this iteration are the improved passing trajectories and player awareness.

Passing in Madden has always been less of a headache than in NCAA, but it could always have used some work. In Madden 13 there are 20 new pass trajectories for the game to choose from, including a shovel pass for close dump offs, that are determined based on how the quarterback would execute them in real life.

With some new passing trajectories comes a new receiver awareness AI that will make hitting your receiver much easier, or difficult depending on how you look at it. Now there will be an icon above the receiver’s head to indicate whether or not they are looking for the ball, helping the player determine when is the best time to hit them on their route. There are still opportunities for the player to anticipate a cut, but now it will be easier to at least gauge why a receiver dropped the ball.

There are so many big changes coming to Madden 13 that’s it’s hard to keep track of all of them, thankfully IGN has put together a handy chart breaking them all down.

NCAA Football fans will be happy to learn that these improvements (aside from the Nantz/Simms commentary) are coming to NCAA 13 first – meaning that both of EA Sports’ popular football franchises will look and play extremely different this year.

What new changes are you most excited about experiencing in Madden 13? Is there anything that EA Tiburon must address that they haven’t yet talked about?