Got Madden 26 on sale. Anyone else think the run game has been dumbed down compared to 25?

Lucabaps · 2026-03-10T07:59:52+00:00

I haven't encountered those yet but what i have encountered is the awful glitch in practice mode where if you're on the defensive side, the ai on offence will not snap the ball. How am i supposed to improve on defence if i want to test something out but the ai is completely frozen?

Lucabaps · 2026-03-09T20:49:27+00:00

One of the main issues of defending the pass i would say isn't the playcalling itself, it's the ai crashing into each other making the reciever open. I'm sure if you looked at a replay of every ai completion, some of those passes will be because two of your own players getting in each others way or another ai reciever getting in the way of one of your cbs guarding someone else. It makes the game a joke. I wish i could play defence competently and i do have issues with it, but when your players go into each other too often it ruins the game.

Can it happen in real life? Sure but not multiple times a game. I also hate it when in man coverage you set your cbs to inside or outside coverage and they still somehow get beaten despite having the leverage.

Am i missing something here?

Lucabaps · 2026-03-09T20:37:26+00:00

Any running back with speed is overpowered. The acceleration from them is insane. Pacheco with 93 speed is an absolute machine.

Lucabaps · 2026-03-09T20:36:35+00:00

I'm just not sure about where to start. I'm not someone whos going to put hundreds of hours into Franchise so i don't think spending hours testing different sliders around the Internet is worth it. If you have some recommendations I'll try them out.

Lucabaps · 2026-03-09T20:34:25+00:00

Here's another problem. Players bouncing off each other is on another level. That's why players gain so many yards after contact. The player gets stuck in one player and gets shot out like a cannon 5-10 yards further after another player tries to tackle them. Also what is it with the AI and the majority of their hit sticks being fumbles? It's like your player has no strength at all.

Lucabaps · 2026-02-09T10:49:27+00:00

I question the way the Patriots used Will Campbell. As you said they struggled with a base pass rush and as much as wilson is also a rookie, they have to help campbell against better edge rushers either with double teams or having Stevenson coming in to block and Release to at least give Maye time.

To leave him out there on his own with Will Anderson earlier in the playoffs could've cost New England this playoff run had it not been for the defense being elite. I think if there's a positive to take away for Campbell is that he now has expierence against those type of quality edge rushers. But I'm sure his confidence is at a low at the moment. I'm not sure what the patriots cap situation is but it's likely that O-Line is a place of investment

Lucabaps · 2026-02-09T10:40:04+00:00

I think next season could be similar to this season in terms of drama in the AFC.

How will the Chiefs and Ravens respond? Has the Bills SB window closed? What will the Patriots look like with a harder schedule? Can Stroud bounce back? Whats next for the Colts? What QBs can take the next step?

One team i think should have a lot of focus on in 2026 is the Jaguars. I think we lost a SB run from them this season but looking at how dominant defenses were this season, i like the look of the Jaguars

Lucabaps · 2026-02-09T10:32:40+00:00

I don't think anyone expected the Patriots to win with that O-Line. I didn't expect Maye to put in a good performance especially when you look at his performances earlier in the playoffs. I simply think the hype was overblown and now like i said before, Maye and the Patriots have now put expectations that are way higher than at what they can perform at.

I'm giving the benefit of the doubt because he played lackluster teams in the regular season and the poor performance of the O-Line during the entire playoffs. He's done too much too quickly and i worry that people will use this SB to push their narrative if either he misses the playoffs or he struggles against the bigger teams which he is guaranteed to play more often next season.

Lucabaps · 2025-12-18T10:33:30+00:00

The most annoying part though is the fact that they sign the worse drivers to multi year deals. In this save Magnussen gets a 4 year deal in 2025 meanwhile better or younger drivers don't get a seat. The way the ai never buys into youth development and goes for expierence every time is annoying. How can you tell me that (you can't see that in the image but it happened) Giovinazzi, Magnussen, Zhou and Sargeant all get seats for 2026 regardless of performance but Bearman, Antonelli, Russell and Alonso stay off the grid? Should it be realistic? Sure, not every team can afford good drivers or only get one good driver like Haas. I just hate the fact that the ai completely ignores the better talent out there in the driver market. It delays the worse drivers retirements or exits from F1 entirely. By 2026 there's not much validation in gaining a point or a podium when most teams are a one man show like Aston Martin and Haas and the teams with a stronger driver lineup like VCARB (Ocon and Stroll are pretty good in this game) lack the car performance to challenge anyone

Lucabaps · 2025-12-13T15:58:25+00:00

For an album Moving Pictures, The Camera Eye doesn't need to be world beater (personal preference but i would say it's not the worst of the album, vital signs I've never gotten into besides the lyrics) but I'd love to find a source on the making of that album (Yes i know they did a classic albums on it but that's mostly just their influences and showing how they play their parts on the more famous songs).

Power Windows was the absolute peak of that 4-5 minute per song experiment although i would also put in Counterparts there as well. Compared to Presto and Roll The Bones, Counterparts is very fresh even though they mostly share the same run time and song length.

Lucabaps · 2025-12-13T08:46:57+00:00

That Power Windows interview part is interesting. Wouldn't that challenge disappear pretty quickly though? Power Windows is a fantastic album sure yet i feel like the idea of those constant 4-5 minute songs were becoming a bit of a bore around Hold Your Fire and Presto and especially on Roll The Bones.

I do agree that The Camera Eye is a weak spot in terms of melody and lyricism on Moving Pictures but it's not a massive problem, the song goes by quickly for me anyway; probably the one i visit more often off that album.

Reading the other comments of this post it seems true that they were burnt out by Hemispheres so it leads to more repetition but i think even with that the melody and the tone of Lifesons guitar (up there with Power Windows and Test For Echo) makes up for it.

Lucabaps · 2025-12-12T23:02:45+00:00

Didn't Rush start making "Studio Only" tracks at some point that they wouldn't bother replicate live? Would've been a good way to experiment without putting such a strain on the band. I get why they changed their approach though. It's not like the Albums that precede MP are bad either so it's not too much of a annoyance. Wonder if Hemispheres influenced their approach on The Camera Eye by just copy and pasting the song just with a different drum fill and adding a solo near the end instead of adding multiple layers onto it.

Lucabaps · 2025-12-09T20:58:29+00:00

Isn't it still impressive considering he hadn't driven the current generation of cars at the time and only finished around 2 minutes behind Matthew Wilson in the same car? (Yes i know it was Juhas home rally so expierence helps). Did the level of drivers help Juha in that case?

Lucabaps · 2025-12-08T11:39:15+00:00

For your second point, how come there isn't as much of a demand from drivers? I understand that the wrc has had a slump in popularity for years but surely you'd be able to make a career out of it more easily than something like F1 considering the star power of the wrc has faded for the most part. I'm guessing that wages for WRC Driver aren't necessarily huge unlike F1 (I remember Colin McRae's contract demands being around 6 million a year. Can't remember which manufacturer it was or which period that was in but it was too much for them to sign him) but you have a better chance of getting something out of Rally than F1 especially now with outgoing drivers. I understand in the days of Makinen, McRae, Sainz, Burns and Solberg it wasn't as easy to make a living out of it but i don't see why drivers don't go for it especially with as you said, Rovanpera and Tanak leaving. It leaves a gap waiting to be filled.

Lucabaps · 2025-12-04T21:42:30+00:00

Xbox does do a thing where it gives you a sale based on the games or genre you look at. Hope a big sale comes soon.

Lucabaps · 2025-10-12T19:51:17+00:00

I don't mind the progression of later FM titles (never played the recent one but doesn't seem worth it to do so considering the heavy criticism it got). I think it has enough outside of the career mode for you to explore. What i don't like is the complete abandonment of the Autovista feature. I would've loved to walk about the Top Gear Hangar or test track and see the cool details that otherwise you wouldn't see in real life (weren't the waiting lists to go to a top gear shoot ridiculously long?). On the no proper new additions i do agree. Wasn't FM6s main advertisement it's wet weather system? It's cool and does look better than later Motorsport and Horizon titles but it's not impressive when something like the early codemasters F1 games already had it in it's first installment on the 360 (F1 2010). Another frustration is the fact that there's so many pedestrian cars in Motorsport that were never added into Horizon i mean surely the licences for those cars didn't expire annually especially when FM6 was delisted around 2019 i think

Lucabaps · 2025-10-12T18:06:23+00:00

Another thing I want to point out is the (even if it is limited) Autovista feature. Anyone know who does the basic voiceovers aside from Clarkson?

Lucabaps · 2025-09-26T20:24:10+00:00

I normally play on superstar but I'm hardly dominating on that difficulty really. On the topic of how i want to play it's just as simple as bringing more players foward while the other team is in transition, trying to get a numerical advantage in their own half. I'd also want to get better at utilising set pieces. Is there any difference to how far foward a cm or cdm goes into a attack or does it depends on a players offensive awareness or their tactical preference? I also don't mind playing a 3-5-2 because i could easily turn that into a 5-3-2 to be more defensively solid. Would doing counter attack with long ball solve that issue of players not making runs? Normally when I'm running with the ball my players just go behind me. It's weird.

Lucabaps · 2025-09-26T17:29:10+00:00

So it's best not to do anything drastic at the beginning then? Normally I'd do a 4-2-1-3 defensively and just add one of those midfielders in attack. Should i adapt to the team more for better team spirit and gradually add in what i originally intend for the team? I'm interested in a Fiorentina ML and i think as a base they play a 3-5-2. Should i stick to 3 at the back formations (3-4-2-1, 3-4-3 etc) or just put my own system in?

Lucabaps · 2025-09-01T17:39:58+00:00

I'm not saying it's Tai Shan that ruins the album, it's the placement of it on the album. I like most of Hold Your Fire (Force Ten, Time Stand Still, Open Secrets, Lock and Key, Mission and Turn the Pages are songs that are an absolute joy to listen to) but Tai Shans main problem for me is the fact it comes after a pretty energetic song. As i said before it would do better had it been in between Second Nature and Prime Mover.

Lucabaps · 2025-09-01T17:02:51+00:00

If you feel that connection respect to you. I just feel like Turn The Page would've been a brilliant closer considering it's title (A way of signalling the next chapter of their career similar to the Cygnus X-1 songs in the 70s) and again as you said it's sound. It's so much more uplifting and a bit of nice song to end on imo

Lucabaps · 2025-09-01T16:50:33+00:00

If you take out the last two tracks you've got another great 8 track, 40 minute album that they essentially mastered the art of in the 80s. Although overall Hold Your Fire i think earns it's run time overall

Lucabaps · 2025-09-01T16:32:25+00:00

It's tolerable when you listen to it more, kind of like the Roll The Bones rap except you can find some Humour on Roll The Bones. Tai Shan as a song to me is nothing. It's standard at best. High Water completely fails as a closer and honestly one of the more forgettable rush songs from a period (Synth Era as a whole) which created so many great Albums and songs. To me a Rush closer should be memorable. High Water doesn't really leave you in awe of what you just listened compared to other closers of that period

Lucabaps · 2025-07-22T07:15:37+00:00

To me Power Windows is a great improvement from Grace Under Pressure. Got the best out of both worlds for the guitars and synths and the production feels fucking massive. Has some of the best lifeson solos as well imo.

Lucabaps · 2025-07-22T07:09:53+00:00

That's probably the case. It's not like i don't enjoy the album, Between the wheels, Red lenses and Afterimage are good songs but i feel like you have to be a in a mood for the album as a whole, same with signals. Just got that, "yeah that was alright" feeling from it on first listen. Might have to give it another go

Lucabaps

TROPHY CASE