Madden 25 features ball-carrier combos, engine improvements
Among the news of all-time great Barry Sanders gracing the cover of Madden NFL 25, EA Sports recently announced two of the series' marquee changes due this year: improvements to the Infinity Engine and a new running game feature called "Run Free."
Run Free promises 30 new ball-carrier combo moves. Using the left trigger, ball-carriers will stutter step before slowing down, enabling combo moves through the use of the right stick on the controller. While past games allowed players to use the right stick to take a step in one direction, then rotate in the other direction to spin away from defenders, these were separate animations. Run Free's system combines these animations.
Changes to the Infinity Engine – the physics engine that powers the series – include the same improvements such as the Force Impact system announced for NCAA Football 14. Madden will share avoidance animations with NCAA 14, with runners sticking their arms out to push off their blockers instead of taking awkwardly sensitive collision tackles. EA Tiburon has promised run blocking improvements, which has especially been needed since the introduction of the engine last year.
Defensive players should be bolstered this year with better tackling pursuit angles and "breakdown behavior," which is related to a defender's reaction to the ball-carrier. Players will also make use of "heat-seeker" tackling, an under-the-hood feature that can be turned off in the game. Heat-seeker tackling "does more to reduce the number of missed tackles and over/under-steered tackles due to user error," Creative Director Rex Dickson told us.
Defense in the game will see other various tweaks, such as better zone coverage logic and improved safeties to guard against previously-exploitable streak routes. Madden 25 is coming to Xbox 360 and PS3 on August 27.%Gallery-186852%
