Born in the 8-bit era, raised by the 16-bit era, and perfected by the 32-bit era, Cory's roots grew from the likes Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man to the world of Resident Evil and Castlevania. Owning a PlayStation at launch allowed to witness the potential of both sports games and racing games along with opening his world to 3-D Fighting titles. Finally, after having participated in the PC gaming world of the late 1990s and early 2000s, the core for his gaming craft was set. From here, it was on to the hardware tech of the future. Hardcore Gamer was invited out to the reveal event for both Madden NFL 27 and EA SPORTS College Football 27. The event known as The Opening Drive was held at the Navy Pier in Chicago with plenty of press, influencers and even current and past NFL stars including Cam Newton. It was a spectacle that bought back OG EA Event vibes from the E3 days. Most importantly, both Madden and College Football were on display to play, and a beta code was provided for College Football 27, so more time was spent on this over the weekend. The approach to playing these games will be vastly different. The focus in gameplay for this year will be on the defense, albeit the offense will get improvements as well. Everything involving pre-playing defensive schemes has been mapped to the left trigger. This is honestly a vast improvement as more options are now available and setting defensive schemes and shells is done much quicker. There's an adjustment period for this initially, but once it clicks, you won't go back. The ability to customize macros and map defensive schemes to the right bumper adds even more depth, but in reality it streamlines the experience. Are you sick of a quarterback scrambling? There's a default scheme for that to try and control that. Having the coverage shells and faux blitzing re-mapped ends up being sort of hidden. On the offensive side, this will be how you change your blocking schemes. For both games, it will literally benefit you to go into Practice Mode to get acclimated with this. You simply won't have enough time during gameplay to get adjusted. The back seven of defenses will now be much more aggressive in zone coverage. Rather than being passive and waiting for a receiver to come into a tight area, they will now seek out and attack the ball while in the air. There's a big distinction when witnessing this, and this helps with covering drag routes over the middle that can be abused. Of course, the ratings will play a pivotal role in this for players. A new jostle mechanic between DBs and wide receivers allows for those that may be elite and not quite as fast on the defensive side to tie up the receiver just enough on a route. You can see these animations in real time. The new Tackle Stick adds additional tackles to the right stick. You can now wrap and lunge with the right stick, but the buttons are still able to be used if you prefer. The tackling animations, especially in Madden, are really something to marvel at this year. Every tackle is fluid across the board, and it really seems like in both games that the system picks up every bit of possible contact. It doesn't appear that there will be that dead area of non-contact when a lot of action is going on. Both games are the most fluid that they have ever been, even if the gameplay speed appears to be toned down. We didn't hop into Dynasty Mode or Road to Glory, but rather spent time on the gameplay details themselves. One major overhaul that will drastically change how every game feels is the new Dynamic Lighting system. In College Football 27, even in the crowd cuts from last year, the lighting is different, and it makes these screens look different. Every location at every time of year will be separate in both games, and the lighting will change from minute to minute, not quarter to quarter. This means shadows will play a bigger impact. Dynamic Weather also means weather can get worse or better throughout the game. College Football 27 will not be receiving a new score bug, but there are new cuts that include player model animations that will be a nice change of pace. Joel Klatt comes into the Big Game Team along with Chris Fowler as both are joined by sideline reporter Holly Rowe. The other broadcast team will remain the same. It appears that new entrance views are available for some teams on CFB. Madden is apparently getting all new introductions for every team, though. The drama and the spectacle of the NFL continue to get the focus on presentation. Madden features three new score bugs with the Thursday Night game offering bold and colorful lighting, the Sunday games apparently feeling like a throwback to Madden NFL 10, and Monday Night getting an update, as well. There is the ability to unlock a performance mode option this year and this was attempted in Madden. While the gameplay feels fluid in regular, this game looks silky smooth when it's in performance mode. Ball carriers will now use Machine Learning to run more appropriately when navigating the field. Hanging mouth guards are available to those who have wanted equipment upgrades. There was one major topic of conversation while people played the game, which was the new catch meter. The new Catch Meter is not on by default. This begins to teeter the road of something deeper and break away from casual fans. In recent years, the ability to place and lead throws was added, and in the past, you could use a face button to choose a type of catch. Now, the option to time your catches is available in the game. Will this be turned on online by default? This window for adjustment is difficult and will require a learning curve. You have to push the catch button at the right time to bring it in. Green means it's a perfectly timed catch, while yellow will rely on the ratings of the player. Red means it wasn't even close. To start, the new Catch Meter is not on by default. Jalen Coker dropped a ball during gameplay when wide open and the meter came back yellow. The idea was to catch while running, and it was dropped. There were noticeable drops early in gameplay until a major focus came on catching the ball. Balls that were usually gimmes were not gimmes with this on. The difficulty adds to a more simulation aspect since it's respecting the ratings of players, but if it isn't forced on anywhere, the question is will anyone use it? Is there any benefit to it? It does not need to be the shot meter in 2K. The Catch Meter is available in both games and certainly worth a try. In both of these games, you will be approaching defense differently. The ability to customize shells for the real deep sim players will allow anyone to create their own identity and their own scheme. People keep asking for things from twenty years ago simply for views on YouTube, when the ability to do these things on defense wasn't even possible at that time. Having these optional macros and the ability to quickly navigate to even individual player audibles is huge, and will take time to master. Seeing the new coverage in action has made the AI more difficult to play against. Everything here that was experienced requires more time.

Source: Hardcore Gamer

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