Sports are an example of where I need multiplayer. The only way they can make Madden against the computer hard is by making opponents just arbitrarily blow through tackles, making (bad) opposing QBs have magic awareness of the field and silly accuracy, etc.
Playing other humans online allows a level playing field (well, if I didn’t use the Patriots this year) and makes the chess match of play calling actually meaningful. I can disguise my looks and mix up play calls and have it actually cause confusion, instead of having the computer complete unaware of context.
Also humans are much more interesting due to the variability of styles. Like bots tend to become predictable, as would be the case if you played the same humans every time…but having different humans makes the competition much more entertaining.
I’d love to get my variety from a franchise mode. Unfortunately, while the actual football sim is clearly and consistently progressing, all their game mode investment is into Ultimate Team trash.
But there’s just no middle ground on difficulty. All Pro is a cakewalk and All Madden has to cheat hard. Until they manage to get the AI to an advanced enough level, people are the only way I can play.
Most other stuff the AI works better. Stuff like Sniper Elite (on a completely unrelated note, the way they use the PS5 triggers is insanely satisfying), you can make extremely interesting with simpler, rule based decision trees because of the freedom you have to set up maps and encounters to use them effectively. Sports are just so constrained and high precision that “accurate” AI would involve 22 players on the field considering the play call, the history of play calls, the game situation, the traits (or at least archetypes) of every other player on the field, etc. It’s a lot more challenging than most people recognize.
Sports are an example of where I need multiplayer. The only way they can make Madden against the computer hard is by making opponents just arbitrarily blow through tackles, making (bad) opposing QBs have magic awareness of the field and silly accuracy, etc.
Playing other humans online allows a level playing field (well, if I didn’t use the Patriots this year) and makes the chess match of play calling actually meaningful. I can disguise my looks and mix up play calls and have it actually cause confusion, instead of having the computer complete unaware of context.
Also humans are much more interesting due to the variability of styles. Like bots tend to become predictable, as would be the case if you played the same humans every time…but having different humans makes the competition much more entertaining.
I’d love to get my variety from a franchise mode. Unfortunately, while the actual football sim is clearly and consistently progressing, all their game mode investment is into Ultimate Team trash.
But there’s just no middle ground on difficulty. All Pro is a cakewalk and All Madden has to cheat hard. Until they manage to get the AI to an advanced enough level, people are the only way I can play.
Most other stuff the AI works better. Stuff like Sniper Elite (on a completely unrelated note, the way they use the PS5 triggers is insanely satisfying), you can make extremely interesting with simpler, rule based decision trees because of the freedom you have to set up maps and encounters to use them effectively. Sports are just so constrained and high precision that “accurate” AI would involve 22 players on the field considering the play call, the history of play calls, the game situation, the traits (or at least archetypes) of every other player on the field, etc. It’s a lot more challenging than most people recognize.